Nanosheet coating improves stability of human pluripotent stem cell culture on glass substrates

High-resolution imaging analysis using various types of cells is an essential tool for dissecting cell functions. Generally, obtaining such images requires the cells to be cultured on glass substrates; however, it often results in the unstable status of cells. In this study, we report that coating the glass substrate using nanosheet composed of hydrophobic polystyrene, with Matrigel, significantly improves the viability of human pluripotent stem cells (hPSCs). Moreover, the nanosheet coating does not affect the transcriptome status of hPSC and enables researchers to perform the high-resolution imaging assay. These results indicate that the nanosheet coating is beneficial to the cells vulnerable to glass substrate culture. Using the nanosheet coating, we revealed that the spreading status of lnc RNA XIST, essential for X-chromosome inactivation (XCI) in female cells, in the nuclei significantly differs in each hPSC line. Taken together, our study provides a novel method to investigate biological questions using high-resolution imaging techniques.(c) 2023 The Authors. Published by Elsevier Inc. This is an open access article under the CC BY license (http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/).

Automated summary

High-resolution imaging analysis is essential for studying cell functions, but culturing cells on glass substrates often leads to cell instability. In this study, we coated the glass substrate with a nanosheet composed of hydrophobic polystyrene and Matrigel, which significantly improved the viability of human pluripotent stem cells (hPSCs). The nanosheet coating did not affect the transcriptome status of hPSC and allowed for high-resolution imaging assay. Our findings demonstrate that the nanosheet coating is beneficial for sensitive cells cultured on glass substrates.