Widely used prostate carcinoma cell lines share common origins
Abstract
Background Cross-contamination is a persistent problem in the establishment and maintenance of mammalian cell lines. The observation that the cell lines PC-3, ALVA-31, and PPC-1 all have a homozygous deletion of the alpha-catenin gene prompted us to investigate the uniqueness of these and several other widely used prostate carcinoma cell lines. Methods The genetic backgrounds of the putative human prostate cell lines (ALVA-31, ALVA-41, BPH-1, DU 145, JCA-1, LAPC-4, LNCaP, NCI-H660, ND-1, PC-3, PC-3MM2, PC-346C, PPC-1, and TSU-Pr1) were analyzed by cytogenetics, mutation analysis, and DNA profiling. Results Similarities between several groups of cell lines were found. ALVA-31, ALVA-41, PC-3, PC-3MM2, and PPC-1 all have a deletion of a C in codon 138 of the p53 gene and show almost identical DNA profiles. The ND-1 cell line has two p53 mutations that are identical to the mutations found in DU 145. These two cell lines also share a high number of structural chromosomal abnormalities and nearly identical DNA profiles. The cell lines TSU-Pr1 and JCA-1 share an identical p53 mutation in exon 5 and identical DNA profiles. Conclusions Several widely used prostate carcinoma cell lines apparently have identities in common. The knowledge that some of these cell lines are derivatives of one another prompts re-evaluation of previously obtained results.
Integrity signals
Registry
Cites
Statistics
Claims the paper makes
Claims other papers make about this one
Each is checked against this paper’s own text: does it say what the citing paper says it does?
ALVA-31 was originally established in 1993 as a human prostate carcinoma, but was found to be identical to PC-3 in 2001.
“This cell line was originally established in 1993 as a human prostate carcinoma [35], but was found to be identical to a different human prostate carcinoma, the PC-3 cell line, in 2001 [36, 37].”
From The ghosts of HeLa: How cell line misidentification contaminates the scientific literature (2017) · cites this paper as [37]
Work by van Bokhoven and colleagues found that about 33% of prostate cell lines were misidentified.
“Work by van Bokhoven and colleagues found that about 33% of prostate cell lines were misidentified [11,12].”
From Genetic Insights into the Economic Toll of Cell Line Misidentification: A Comprehensive Review (2026) · cites this paper as [12]
No citation lists for this paper
No citation lists for this paper yet — checked again daily.
References 69 · Cited by 90
- Authors
- van Bokhoven, A., Varella‐Garcia, M., Korch, C., Hessels, D., & Miller, G. J.
- Affiliations
- University of Colorado Health (US)
- University of Colorado Cancer Center (US)
- Corresponding author
- Miller, Gary J.
- Venue
- The Prostate
- Publisher
- Wiley
- Published
- 2001-03-21
- Volume
- 47
- Issue
- 1
- Pages
- 36-51
- ISSN
- 0270-4137 (ISSN-L)
- 1097-0045
- OpenAlex
- W2031602769
- Cited by
- 90
- References
- 69
- Citations by year
- 2026: 5 · 2025: 3 · 2024: 3 · 2023: 2 · 2022: 4 · 2021: 1 · 2020: 1 · 2019: 4 · 2018: 3 · 2017: 1 · 2016: 1 · 2015: 3 · 2014: 1 · 2013: 1 · 2012: 5
- FWCI
- 7.62
- Type
- journal article
- Language
- en
- Open access
- closed
- Locations
- The Prostate (publishedVersion)
- PubMed (publishedVersion)
- Funders
- National Institutes of Health (5r01ca053520-06)
- U.S. Public Health Service
- National Cancer Institute (R01CA084269, CA-53520, CA-84269, CA-46934, P30CA046934)
- Topics
- Health Sciences › Medicine › Pulmonary and Respiratory Medicine › Prostate Cancer Treatment and Research
- Life Sciences › Biochemistry, Genetics and Molecular Biology › Cancer Research › Cancer Genomics and Diagnostics
- Life Sciences › Biochemistry, Genetics and Molecular Biology › Genetics › Genomic variations and chromosomal abnormalities
- Keywords
- cell line cross-contamination, TP53 mutation, DNA fingerprinting, chromosomal abnormalities, PC-3 cells, cell line origin, genetic background
- MeSH terms
- Cytogenetics, DNA Mutational Analysis, HeLa Cells, Humans, Male, Polymorphism, Genetic, Prostatic Neoplasms, Genes, ras, Tumor Cells, Cultured, Tumor Suppressor Protein p53, In Situ Hybridization, Fluorescence, DNA Primers, Cell Lineage, Genes, Neoplasm
About these checks
Registry, retraction, Cites and statistics results are computed, not judged, with one exception: a printed reference that no index lists is read once by a model before it counts as a citation error. Claims are extracted by a model and kept only when their quote appears verbatim in the text; each cited source is then checked, with a model’s help, for whether it says what the claim relies on. Those verdicts can be wrong — read the claim’s quote and the cited source before relying on one.
Statistics and arithmetic are recomputed, not judged.
Confidence bands are shown only for fields calibrated on our annotated test set. None is calibrated yet, so no band is shown.
What counts as a claim ›How we measure confidence ›How we check this ›
Are you an author, or do you see a problem with this page? Request a review
