New Method for Cell Line Authentication

Many types of cell lines (primary and transformed; human, animal, insect, and plant) are maintained over time, frozen for storage, and at later times thawed for use in additional experiments in laboratories all around the world. These cell lines are used in a variety of assays for research and toxicity testing, as well as to develop tissues for in vitro models and regenerative medicine.

Each type of cell line has the potential to change over time as the cells replicate in culture, or to become contaminated with another cell type or an infectious agent. All of these potential “changes” can alter the results obtained when using the cells in experiments or tests.

Several organizations, including the American Type Culture Collection and some of the organizations associated with toxicity test method validation, have developed and promote the use of good cell culture practices that include the need to characterize and identify cell lines.

A new method for cell line authentication was recently published in the open-access journal BMC Genomics. “NIAID researchers and their colleagues have described a new method to assess misidentification, contamination, and genetic abnormalities in mouse cell lines, helping to ensure the validity of research findings.”

Summary of the research paper: http://www.niaid.nih.gov/LabsAndResources/resources/bioinformatics/Pages/newCellLineAuthentication.aspx

The open-access article: http://www.biomedcentral.com/1471-2164/15/847

Citation:
Didion, J.P., Buus, R.J., Naghashfar, Z., Threadgill, D.W., Morse, H.C., de Villena F.P. (2014). SNP array profiling of mouse cell lines identifies their strains of origin and reveals cross-contamination and widespread aneuploidy. BMC Genomics 15: 847.

 

Posted: October 23, 2014