Cited by 116Viral Infectious Diseases and Gene Expression in InsectsClinical Laboratory Practices and Quality ControlViral-associated cancers and disorders

False human hematopoietic cell lines: cross-contaminations and misinterpretations

Drexler, HG, Dirks, WG, MacLeod, RAF·1999·Leukemia

Abstract

The risk of adventitious contamination and subsequent overgrowth of cell lines by unrelated cells is a potential and often recurring problem where cells are grown and studied. This problem of intraspecies and interspecies cross-contamination among human cell lines has been recognized for over 25 years; incidences of cell cross-contamination between 17 and 35% have been reported. The most useful methods to detect human cell cross-contamination are DNA fingerprinting and cytogenetic analysis, each complementing the other. Using this combination, we found that in total 14.8% of the human hematopoietic cell lines received either from the original investigator (n = 117 cell lines) or from secondary sources (n = 72 cell lines) were cross-contaminated with another hematopoietic cell line and were thus false cell cultures. Another problem relates to the fact that not every cell line established from a patient with a hematopoietic malignancy is a malignant cell line; unintended immortalization of non-malignant B cells by 'passenger' Epstein-Barr virus (EBV) leads to the establishment of B-lymphoblastoid cell lines (termed EBV+ B-LCLs), an event which is much more frequent than the establishment of a 'true' leukemia-lymphoma-myeloma cell line. These EBV+B-LCLs are most often (albeit not always) unrelated to the malignant clone. The misinterpretation of such EBV+ B-LCLs as true malignant hematopoietic cell lines (particularly in research areas investigating B cell-derived neoplasms such…

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Crossref · 10.1038/sj.leu.2401510

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  • Isoenzyme and allozyme analysis can generally detect contamination affecting at least 5-10% of the culture population.

    “The electrophoretic mobilities of chosen enzymes from a given cell are used to generate a unique gel banding pattern that can generally detect contamination affecting ≥ 5-10% of the culture population [24,31,78,97].”

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Authors
Drexler, H., Dirks, W., & MacLeod, R.
Affiliations
Leibniz Institute DSMZ – German Collection of Microorganisms and Cell Cultures (DE)
Venue
Leukemia
Published
1999-10-01
Volume
13
Issue
10
Pages
1601-1607
ISSN
  • 0887-6924 (ISSN-L)
  • 1476-5551
OpenAlex
W2058142453
Cited by
116
References
0
Citations by year
2025: 1 · 2024: 4 · 2022: 3 · 2021: 4 · 2020: 1 · 2019: 2 · 2018: 3 · 2016: 2 · 2015: 2 · 2014: 1 · 2013: 1 · 2012: 8
FWCI
5.13
Type
journal article
Language
en
Open access
closed
Locations
  • Leukemia (publishedVersion)
  • PubMed (publishedVersion)
Topics
  • Life Sciences › Biochemistry, Genetics and Molecular Biology › Molecular Biology › Viral Infectious Diseases and Gene Expression in Insects
  • Health Sciences › Medicine › Physiology › Clinical Laboratory Practices and Quality Control
  • Health Sciences › Medicine › Oncology › Viral-associated cancers and disorders
Keywords
cell line cross-contamination, hematopoietic cell lines, DNA fingerprinting, cytogenetic analysis, Epstein-Barr virus, B-lymphoblastoid cell lines, karyotype, immunoprofile, multiple myeloma
MeSH terms
Cell Line, Hematopoietic Stem Cells, Humans, Karyotyping, DNA Fingerprinting, Cell Culture Techniques, Cell Lineage, Hematologic Neoplasms

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