Common Cell Lines
A marvel in the scientific world, cell lines are defined as a homogeneous population of cells that, theoretically, have an unlimited capacity for division. These cells become stable once they undergo mitosis and generally come from cancer cells received from a subject. Cell lines are mutated and processed by an artificial oncogene. Used in biological laboratories on a daily basis, common cell lines were derived from different species.-
Human Cell Lines
-
There are six common cell lines found in humans. HeLa cells are one of the most commonly used cell lines and were initially taken from cervical cancer cells. The Caco-2 cell line comes from colon cancer and was created at the Sloan-Kettering Institute for Cancer Research. Three different human cell lines exist that came from breast cancer found in humans. These include MCF-7, the most popularly used, MDA-MB-43 and 7-47D. Also, the Jurkat common cell line came from lymphoma of the T Lymphocyte.
Monkey Cell Lines
-
In the 1960s, Chiba University in Chiba, Japan was where the kidney epithelial cell line was established from the African green monkey. Also referred to as the Vero line, this cell line from monkeys is used in vaccine production, transfections and in the detection of verotoxins. Though resistant to a wide variety of viruses, the Vero line has been found to be susceptible to an even larger amount of additional viruses. Some of the viruses the epithelial cell line is susceptible to include polioviruses, rubeola and rubellavirus.
Mouse and Rat Cell Lines
-
Five common cell lines are from mice and rats, more specifically, three are from mice and two come from rats. From mice, 3T3 cells are from a cell line developed at the New York University school of Medicine in 1962. This is the standard for fibroblast cell lines. Also from fibroblast is the NIH-373 cell line. AtT20 is derived from a pituitary tumor in mice. In rats, the pituitary somatotrope tumor is the root of the GH# cell line. PC12, also from rats, was developed from a pheochromocytoma.
-