Designed to efficiently induce differentiation in ES and iPS cells, AMSBIO has expanded its iMatrix series of recombinant laminin E8 fragments to now include laminin isoforms LN-111 and LN-332.

This expanded range of laminin isoforms (LN-111, 332, 511, 411 and 221) now provides even greater flexibility and control when tailoring your substrate to the requirements of specific cultured cells.

Proven in many leading life science research labs – iMatrix is used as a substrate for culturing and maintaining cells, including Pluripotent Stem Cells and Mesenchymal Stem Cells, as well as for differentiation into ectoderm, endoderm, and mesoderm. All iMatrix products offer the dual advantage of recombinant protein expression and as E8 fragments they contain all of the integrin-binding sites of full-length laminin in a much shorter protein.

New to the product range, iMatrix-111 is the E8 fragment of the LN-111 laminin isoform, which plays significant roles in vivo and is important in cell culture. As well as being the major substrate for nerve axon growth, both in vivo and in vitro, LN-111 is also the main component of the industry standard substrates used in cell culture: Matrigel and Cultrex BME. iMatrix-111 has been validated for to promote differentiation of iPSCs into hepatocyte-like cells.

The Laminin-332 isoform is essential for epithelial cell adhesion to the basement membrane and iMatrix Laminin-322 has been used to induce differentiation of iPS cells into corneal epithelial cells in vitro.

Featured Image: ACE2-expressing iPS cells grown with iMatrix-511 as ECM in StemFit medium; infected with SARS-CoV-2 virus after cryopreservation in STEM CELLBANKER. Green: SARS-CoV-2 N protein, Red: OCT3/4, Blue: DAPI. Photo: Courtesy of Kazuo Takayama (CiRA, Kyoto University, Japan)