Ethnic differences in fertility and assisted reproduction: Ethnic disparity in stem cell availability and research

Abstract

In addition to the great promise for tissue replacement therapies, research on human embryonic stem cells provides insights into developmental mechanism of disease. However, the lack of diversity in pluripotent stem cell lines limits the discovery for the mechanism of diseases with known ethnic disparities. It also reduces the chance for minority groups to be the recipients of stem cell treatments. In this article, we discuss the current status of the racial disparity in available stem cells, including hematopoietic stem cells from both bone marrow and cord blood, as well as pluripotent stem cells. The application of pluripotent stem cells, as tools for investigating the mechanism of racially implicated disease conditions is proposed. We also report the derivation of 12 African-American iPS cell lines as an initial effort to address the disparity in the availability of pluripotent stem cells for minority populations.