What is the role of 2-mercaptoethanol in inhibiting differentiation of ES Cells?

Answer 1

BMSH (beta-mercaptoethanol) is usually used in protein work as a disulfide-reducing agent. It's not clear why it inhibits differentiation of ES cells, I couldn't find out anything about it. It is undoubtedly due to its role as a reducing agent, but its target is unknown (at least to me) -- one reference calls it an "antioxidant".

BMSH is a very smelly chemical (smells like flatulence), maybe the ES cells say "hey don't differentiate yet because let's get away from the stinky smell!!" :-) ok, a little joking around never hurt anyone :-)