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Review
. 2018 Jan 9;10(1):1-6.
doi: 10.1016/j.stemcr.2017.12.002.

A Standard Nomenclature for Referencing and Authentication of Pluripotent Stem Cells

Affiliations
Review

A Standard Nomenclature for Referencing and Authentication of Pluripotent Stem Cells

Andreas Kurtz et al. Stem Cell Reports. .

Abstract

Unambiguous cell line authentication is essential to avoid loss of association between data and cells. The risk for loss of references increases with the rapidity that new human pluripotent stem cell (hPSC) lines are generated, exchanged, and implemented. Ideally, a single name should be used as a generally applied reference for each cell line to access and unify cell-related information across publications, cell banks, cell registries, and databases and to ensure scientific reproducibility. We discuss the needs and requirements for such a unique identifier and implement a standard nomenclature for hPSCs, which can be automatically generated and registered by the human pluripotent stem cell registry (hPSCreg). To avoid ambiguities in PSC-line referencing, we strongly urge publishers to demand registration and use of the standard name when publishing research based on hPSC lines.

Keywords: cell data referencing; cell databases; cell line authentication; cell line nomenclature; human pluripotent stem cells; stem cell registry.

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Figures

Figure 1
Figure 1
Naming Scheme for hPSC Lines A donor is recruited and hPSC lines generated by diverse generators x, y, … n or deposited in banks and registries, which submit the essential name elements to hPSCreg to automatically generate a standard name. A BioSamples ID for the line and the donor is automatically provided in parallel for each cell line. The names and BioSamples IDs are locked and registered in a catalog in the hPSCreg database as well as in the Cellosaurus cell line database. Historical lines with non-standard names are often used in hPSC banks and registries. Registration of these lines in hPSCreg will automatically provide a standard name and link it to the pre-existing names, which remain as synonyms.

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