Human embryonic stem cells are currently very frequent topic,
not only in the scientific world. Their unlimited self-renewal
capacity and the ability to develop into any cell type of an
adult organism predeterminates them for their potential
clinical use. Although there is a lot known e.g. about the
culture conditions for their proper growth, about their cell
signaling and differentiation capacity, little attention has
been paid to research of their metabolic properties yet.
Understanding their metabolism is equally important, as they
have similar metabolic characteristics to those of tumor cells.
These characteristics could be one of the causes of teratomas,
which stem cells form very often, when transplanted into a
living organism. The aim of this thesis is to develop methods
for accurate measurement of some metabolic parameters.
Development of these methods could contribute to more accurate
analysis of the metabolic changes occurring during their
differentiation into specialized cell types. A constituent part
the thesis is also to apply those methods to metabolites
measurement in cultures of human stem cells (either embryonic
or induced) and differentiated cells.