Following a recent peer-reviewed publication describing the expansion of an iPS cell line in C-Stem™ while maintaining the same genomic profile, Maxime Feyeux, PhD, co-founder and Chief Scientific Officer of TreeFrog Therapeutics, explains how such maintenance of genomic integrity is possible in C-Stem™.
Transcript:
One other question that we have is: Why do we have claims on genomic integrity maintenance ? We have an insight as to the impact of the culture system on genomic integrity. That’s a bold claim. So basically we checked the genome of the cells going in the C-Stem™, and the genome of the cells after amplification – going out of C-Stem™. And basically we have a match. So we maintain the genomic integrity. That’s something that we should have: in vivo, the pluripotent stem cells they ought to maintain the genomic integrity, because if there is a problem, then the whole body is going to inherit it. So there’s a huge pressure to do a good job there. And basically in classical culture systems you actually see mutations accruing over time. So that’s a very important thing to check for. And I would say that the usual suspect as to why we have that drift is that there is a lot of cell death. And if you have a mutation that gives you a survival advantage, you’re going to be selected for, especially if there is a lot of cell death. If you don’t have much cell death, you’re not going to have the opportunity to be selected for.