Vendors

Skin

MelanoDerm™ (MatTek, Ashland, MA, USA)

Offers melanocytes of European, African, and Asian descent
(note: missing ancestry annotation for the keratinocytes).

SkinEthicTM RHPE (EpiSkin, Lyon, France)

Offers three different phototypes of human skin, no ancestry annotation for specific cells available online.

Vendors

Hepatocytes

Primary Cell Models (LifeNet Health)

Offer a large inventory of Liver cells (>200 lots) which suggests there are a number of different ancestral backgrounds available (no list given on the website).

The metadata provided with their cell models outperforms any other provider found so far (see screenshot). The ancestry seems self-reported.

They mention on the website: “Our hepatocytes are now genotyped for pharmacologically relevant phase I and II enzymes which have a direct impact on the metabolism of drug candidates. Genotyping data includes the actual sequencing call, the reference allele, and the allele frequency of 112 single nucleotide polymorphisms (SNPs) and is customized to the donor’s ethnicity.

Based on the genotyping results a classification of poor, intermediate, or extensive (normal) metabolizer can be made.”

Your call to action:

  • Match cell line specific CYP alleles with high prevalent and high risk alleles for the target populations: cross check at PharmGKB which alleles to prioritize.

  • Pay attention to whether the cell lines are homozygous or heterozygous for the allele, this is relevant for the drug response phenotype (listed on PharmGKB - see screenshot).

LifeNet Health provides comprehensive metadata associated with their cell models. See above (link)

Screenshot from PharmGKB (link)