Significant acquisition of chromosomal aberrations in human adult mesenchymal stem cells: Response to Sensebé et al.

摘要

Our recent article (Ben-David et al., 2011) presented a comprehensive evaluation of chromosomal aberrations in pluripotent and multipotent cell types. We reported that -9% of the pluripotent and neural stem cells (PSCs and NSCs, respectively), and -4% of the mesenchymal stem cells (MSCs), that we analyzed harbored large chromosomal aberrations. We found that each stem cell type was prone to acquire distinct recurrent chromosomal abnormalities, aberrant cells could outgrow the normal cells in culture within several passages, and the common aberrations in stem cell cultures resembled characteristic aberrations of tumors from the same cell lineages. Importantly, we detected some aberrations that had been overlooked-and, consequently, not controlled for-in the original studies reporting the cell lines. We therefore concluded that the genomic integrity of stem cells should be monitored carefully before using the cells in a clinical setting. We anticipated that this article would provoke discussion, and we welcome the questions raised by Sensebe et al. (2012).