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Recurrent gain of chromosomes 17q and 12 in cultured human embryonic stem cells

Abstract

We have observed karyotypic changes involving the gain of chromosome 17q in three independent human embryonic stem (hES) cell lines on five independent occasions. A gain of chromosome 12 was seen occasionally. This implies that increased dosage of chromosome 17q and 12 gene(s) provides a selective advantage for the propagation of undifferentiated hES cells. These observations are instructive for the future application of hES cells in transplantation therapies in which the use of aneuploid cells could be detrimental.

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Figure 1: Karyotypic changes affecting chromosomes 17 and 12 in sublines of H7 hES cells.

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Acknowledgements

This work was supported in part by grants from the Biotechnology and Biological Sciences Research Council, Wellcome Trust and Yorkshire Cancer Research. We thank Henry Yuen and the Oskar Rennebohm Foundation for their gifts to the University of Wisconsin Foundation that helped support this work.

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Correspondence to Peter W Andrews.

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P.W.A. and J.S.D. have equity in Axordia, Ltd., a university spinout company dedicated to development of stem cell technology.

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Draper, J., Smith, K., Gokhale, P. et al. Recurrent gain of chromosomes 17q and 12 in cultured human embryonic stem cells. Nat Biotechnol 22, 53–54 (2004). https://doi.org/10.1038/nbt922

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