Cell Lines

Cell Lines Cell lines are stable, established proliferating cells derived from various tissue sources and used in many in vitro applications, including cell culture, cell-based assays, and protein expression. The choice of an appropriate cell line will depend on the biological model being studied, including disease, species, gene expression profiles, and tissue of interest. Humans, mice, and rats share many similarities with respect to mammalian biology and protein expression, making rodent cell lines acceptable in many applications. Recombinant cell lines are also commercially available, which eliminates the manual process of generating new cell lines. Overexpression and reporter cell lines are transfected with transgenes for studying key proteins of interest. Knockout cell lines, inversely, exhibit stable, long-term knockdown or silencing of a desired target gene. The Biocompare cell lines catalog highlights some of the most commonly used human and mouse cell lines supplied by leading reagent manufacturers.

Common Cell Lines:

  • HEK293 - are human embryonic kidney cells and are widely used in transfection and protein expression.
  • HeLa - derived from human cervical cancer tissue, HeLa cells are highly robust and are used in many applications.
  • CHO - generated form the Chinese hamster ovary, CHO cells can undergo human-compatible post-translational modifications.
  • NIH 3T3 - originate from fibroblast cells of an NIH Swiss mouse embryo. These cells grow grow adherent and have fibroblast morphology.
  • Jurkat - are immortalized T lymphocytes first derived from the peripheral blood of a young leukemia patient.
  • HepG2 - comprised of human hepatoma cells, HepG2 expresses many distinct functions of differentiated human hepatocytes.

Recommended Reading:

  • Using CRISPR to Create Cell Line and Organoid Model Systems

    Using CRISPR to Create Cell Line and Organoid Model Systems

    The use of editing tools such as CRISPR/Cas9 has revolutionized researchers’ ability to alter cells’ genomes almost at will. A wide variety of possibilities are now unlocked in realms such as genetic screening and tissue engineering, for example, as well as in enabling further understanding of development, aging, cancer, and other disease processes.