Establishment of a Brazilian Line of Human Embryonic Stem Cells in Defined Medium: Implications for Cell Therapy in an Ethnically Diverse Population

Pluripotent human embryonic stem (hES) cells are an important experimental tool for basic and applied research, and a potential source of different tissues for transplantation. However, one important challenge for the clinical use of these cells is the issue of immunocompatibility, which may be dealt with by the establishment of hES cell banks to attend different populations. Here we describe the derivation and characterization of a line of hES cells from the Brazilian population, named BR-I, in commercial defined medium. In contrast to the other hES cell lines established in defined medium, BR-I maintained a stable normal karyotype as determined by genomic array analysis after 6 months in continuous culture (passage 29). To our knowledge, this is the first reported line of hES cells derived in South America. We have determined its genomic ancestry and compared the HLA-profile of BR-I and another 22 hES cell lines established elsewhere with those of the Brazilian population, finding they would match only 0.011% of those individuals. Our results highlight the challenges involved in hES cell banking for populations with a high degree of ethnic admixture.