Abstract
INTRASPECIES contamination of cell cultures is a serious technical problem when more than one cell line is maintained in continuous serial subculture within a laboratory. Biochemical1–3 and immunological4,5 evidence has strongly suggested that many “cell lines” that are commonly used in the laboratory around the world have been contaminated with HeLa cells. Chromosome rearrangements resulting in specific “markers” provide a unique opportunity to monitor for intralinear specificity in HeLa and other human cells. Because certain cell lines in the American Type Culture Collection (ATCC) repository have already been shown to possess the type A (fast) G6PD characteristic of HeLa, we initiated a survey of these cell lines for the chromosome features described for HeLa cells6–9 using the trypsin–Giemsa banding technique10. Ten cell lines, including two HeLa lines, have been studied so far. Five of these lines have been found to contain marker chromosomes typical of HeLa cells. The non-HeLa cell lines have chromosome characteristics of their own which can also be used to monitor their purity.
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LAVAPPA, K., MACY, M. & SHANNON, J. Examination of ATCC stocks for HeLa marker chromosomes in human cell lines. Nature 259, 211–213 (1976). https://doi.org/10.1038/259211a0
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DOI: https://doi.org/10.1038/259211a0
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