| mESCs | hESCs | |
| Morphology | Diverse | Rounded with sharp boundaries |
| In vitro culture requirements | LIF inhibits differentiation | MEF or Human Feeder Cell Layer (recently, feeder-free culture is possible)4 |
| Replication time | ~12 hours | ~36 hours4 |
| Antigenic phenotype | SSEA-1 | SSEA-3, SSEA-44 |
| Vimentin | Absent | Present |
| Trophoectoderm markers | Absent | Present |
| β-III tubulin | Present | β-5 tubulin present |
| LIFR | High | Low/variable |
| Gp-130 | High | Low/variable |
| FGF4 | High | Absent |
| HRASP | Required | Pseudogene |
| E-hox | Required | No orthologue present |
| Fox-D3 | Present/required | Low/absent |
| Lineage induction by Oct4 | Mesoderm and Endoderm | Endoderm2 |
| Lineage induction by SOX2 | Ectoderm and Mesoderm | Not well-established2 (it’s importance for hESC is yet to be established as it is missing in some lines)3 |
| NANOG’s role in maintaining stem-cell-features | Pluripotency only | Pluripotency and self-renewal2 |