Female sex bias in human embryonic stem cell lines.

Stem Cells Dev

Department of Cell and Developmental Biology Sackler Medical School, Tel Aviv Sourasky Medical Center, Tel Aviv University, Lis Maternity Hospital, Tel Aviv, Israel.

Published: February 2012

The factors limiting the rather inefficient derivation of human embryonic stem cells (HESCs) are not fully understood. The aim of this study was to analyze the sex ratio in our 42 preimplantation genetic diagnosis (PGD)-HESC lines, in an attempt to verify its affect on the establishment of HESC lines. The ratio between male and female PGD-derived cell lines was compared. We found a significant increase in female cell lines (76%). This finding was further confirmed by a meta-analysis for combining the results of all PGD-derived HESC lines published to date (148) and all normal karyotyped HESC lines derived from spare in vitro fertilization embryos worldwide (397). Further, gender determination of embryos demonstrated that this difference originates from the actual derivation process rather than from unequal representation of male and female embryos. It can therefore be concluded that the clear-cut tendency for female preponderance is attributed to suboptimal culture conditions rather than from a true gender imbalance in embryos used for derivation of HESC lines. We propose a mechanism in which aberrant X chromosome inactivation and/or overexpression of critical metabolic X-linked genes might explain this sex dimorphism.

Download full-text PDF

Source
http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC3272241PMC
http://dx.doi.org/10.1089/scd.2011.0102DOI Listing

Publication Analysis

Top Keywords

hesc lines
16
cell lines
12
human embryonic
8
embryonic stem
8
lines
8
male female
8
female
5
female sex
4
sex bias
4
bias human
4

Similar Publications

Want AI Summaries of new PubMed Abstracts delivered to your In-box?

Enter search terms and have AI summaries delivered each week - change queries or unsubscribe any time!