Support the proliferation of mesenchymal stem cells (Choi et al. J Biosci Bioeng, 2008) with Ascorbic Acid. Ascorbic Acid is a reducing agent that shows antioxidant activity against reactive oxygen species. Ascorbic Acid is used to differentiate mouse embryonic stem (ES) cells into osteoblasts (zur Nieden et al. Differentiation, 2003) and cardiomyocytes (Takahashi et al. Circulation, 2003). This small molecule also promotes differentiation of osteoblasts from human and mouse mesenchymal cells (Pittenger et al. Science, 1999; Tropel et al. Exp Cell Res, 2004) and increases the efficiency of reprogramming mouse and human fibroblasts to induced pluripotent stem (iPS) cells (Esteban et al. Cell Stem Cell, 2010). L-Ascorbic Acid is supplied as a crystalline solid with ≥95% purity; Molecular weight 176.1 g/mol; CAS Number 50-81-7. Visit STEMCELL.com for more information and related products.