Table 1.

Common Mammalian Cell Hosts

Cell line	Description	Growth	Utility	Sourcea
Human
Namalwa	Burkitt's lymphoma–transformed lymphoblastoid cell	Large‐scale suspension	Production of α interferon (e.g., by Burroughs Wellcome)	ATCC #CRL‐1432
HeLa	Aneuploid cervical carcinoma cell	Small‐scale suspension	Production of small quantities of research material (few mg)	ATCC #CCL‐2
293	Transformed kidney cell	Small‐scale suspension	Production of small quantities of research material (few mg)	ATCC #CCL‐1573
WI‐38	Human diploid normal embryonic lung cell	Attachment only	Host for virus production	ATCC #CCL‐75
MRC‐5	Human diploid normal embryonic lung cell	Attachment only	Hardier host for virus production—e.g., hepatitis A	ATCC #CCL‐171
HepG2	Liver carcinoma transformed cell	Attachment	Small‐scale evaluation of expression—e.g., HBVsAg	ATCC #HB‐8065
Rodent
3T3	Swiss mouse embryo fibroblast	Attachment	Used in testing transforming agents, expression evaluation	ATCC #CCL‐92
L‐929	Normal connective tissue fibroblasts	Attachment	Small‐scale evaluations of expression	ATCC #CCL‐1
Myeloma (e.g., NS/O)	Many types	Large‐scale suspension	Monoclonal antibody production	ATCC (and commercial sources)
BHK‐21	Baby hamster kidney cell	Large‐scale suspension	Host for virus production or for stable gene integration	ATCC #CCL‐10
CHO‐K1	Chinese hamster ovary cell	Large‐scale suspension	Used with glutamine synthetase system	ATCC #CCL‐61
CHO DG44	Chinese hamster ovary cell	Large‐scale suspension	Host for DHFR coamplification	L. Chasinb
CHO DXB11	Chinese hamster ovary cell	Large‐scale suspension	Preferred host for DHFR coamplification	L. Chasinb
Monkey
COS‐7	Transformed African green monkey kidney cell	Small‐scale attachment	Transient expression host	ATCC #CCL‐1651
Vero	Normal African green monkey kidney cell	Large‐scale attachment	Production of viruses	ATCC #CCL‐81

^aAbbreviation: ATCC, American Type Culture Collection (see psaspl).

^bE‐mail: lac2@columbia.edu

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