Activation of metastatic potential in african green monkey kidney cell lines by prolongedin vitro culture

Summary Studies on the tumorigenicity of Vero kidney cells ofCercopithecus aethiops monkey origin were extended to various passage levels of BSC-1 aneuploid cells and to low passage CV-1 diploid cells (derived also fromC. aethiops monkey kidney). It was found that BSC-1 cells—like Vero cells—showed increased tumorigenicity with increasing passage level in antitymocyte globulins (ATG) treated newborn rats and in nude mice. Cells passaged over 250 times in cultures formed invasive adenocarcinomas in newborn rats. Their malignant tumor growth was further demonstrated around the 500 passage level when tumor metastases were detected in the lungs of four of the 14 inoculated rats. Vero cells induced such lung metastases in rats already at passage 227. CV-1 diploid cells at low passage level produced small nodules of epithelioid cells in newborn rats at 6th day after inoculation that had disappeared by the 21st day, and caused no local invasion nor lung metastasis. In vitro tumorigenicity tests on BSC-1 and CV-1 cells, using chick embryo skin, human muscle and colony formation in agarose, confirmed the animal test results. The results of this study indicate that BSC-1 and Vero cell lines at low and high passage levels may prove to be useful tools to study the molecular basis of malignancy. Editor's Statement In this paper Contreras et al. document the increased malignancy of commonly-used monkey cell lines upon long-term culture. These observations have implications for the use of these cell lines in studies of cancer cell biology, as well as the use of these lines for the production of biologicals. David W. Barnes     

病毒疫苗制备用不同核型VERO细胞系在裸鼠体内致癌/致瘤性的系统实验研究

生产疫苗用细胞系可能具有致瘤性,一些常用的细胞系需要检查不同代次有无致癌性。在建立传代细胞种子库与工作库基础上,对研制生产病毒活疫苗所用8株VERO细胞系在219只裸鼠进行了致癌(瘤)实验。本研究结果表明,VERO细胞染色体核型可发生变异,亚四倍体JA株与超二倍体KA株具有强的致癌性,不能用于致弱活病毒疫苗制备,但可替代HeLa细胞系用作恶性肿瘤阳性对照细胞。筛出无致瘤性的YB、dC、M和JB株亚二倍体VERO细胞系,可替代BHK-21细胞用于狂犬病减毒活疫苗制备。VERO细胞系染色体遗传相对稳定。不同代次变化不大。研究发现细胞染色体遗传特征决定致瘤性质并具有种属特异性,不同核型细胞致瘤性不同,细胞染色体数目变异大小和致癌性成正相关,通过体内外交替选育可在裸鼠体内快速选育成功高变异率肿瘤细胞系。高变异率HeLa或VERO细胞系移植于裸鼠可能产生恶性横纹肌样瘤。因此,应当强调疫苗生产用细胞系致瘤性评价的重要性。     

Potential neoplastic evolution of Vero cells: in vivo and in vitro characterization

Vero cell lines are extensively employed in viral vaccine manufacturing. Similarly to all established cells, mutations can occur during Vero cells in vitro amplification which can result in adverse features compromising their biological safety. To evaluate the potential neoplastic evolution of these cells, in vitro transformation test, gene expression analysis and karyotyping were compared among low- (127 and 139 passages) and high-passage (passage 194) cell lines, as well as transformed colonies (TCs). In vivo tumorigenicity was also tested to confirm preliminary in vitro data obtained for low passage lines and TCs. Moreover, Vero cells cultivated in foetal bovine serum-free medium and derived from TCs were analysed to investigate the influence of cultivation methods on tumorigenic evolution. Low-passage Vero developed TCs in soft agar, without showing any tumorigenic evolution when inoculated in the animal model. Karyotyping showed a hypo-diploid modal chromosome number and rearrangements with no difference among Vero cell line passages and TCs. These abnormalities were reported also in serum-free cultivated Vero. Gene expression revealed that high-passage Vero cells had several under-expressed and a few over-expressed genes compared to low-passage ones. Gene ontology revealed no significant enrichment of pathways related to oncogenic risk. These findings suggest that in vitro high passage, and not culture conditions, induces Vero transformation correlated to karyotype and gene expression alterations. These data, together with previous investigations reporting tumour induction in high-passage Vero cells, suggest the use of low-passage Vero cells or cell lines other than Vero to increase the safety of vaccine manufacturing.     

Assessing the tumorigenic phenotype of VERO cells in adult and newborn nude mice.

VERO cell lines are important substrates for viral vaccine manufacture. The mechanism by which these cells became neoplastically transformed is unknown. During tissue-culture passage, VERO cells can develop the capacity to form tumors. Although at the passage levels (around p140) currently used for vaccine manufacture, VERO cells are non-tumorigenic, questions have been raised about safety issues that might be associated with this capacity to acquire a tumorigenic phenotype. To begin to address these issues, the tumorigenicity of VERO cell lines, derived at different passage levels under different growth conditions, were evaluated in 365-day assays in adult and newborn nude mice. High passage (p>200) VERO cell lines established by random passaging in tissue culture produced tumors in adult (10 out of 27) mice and newborn (21 out of 30) mice, respectively. In contrast, a high passage (p>250) cell line established by passage at sub-confluence produced tumors only in newborn mice (16 out of 30). Progressively growing tumors began forming at 36 days in newborns and at 69 days in adults. Higher tumor incidences and shorter tumor latencies suggest that newborn nude mice may be more sensitive than adults in detecting the expression of a tumorigenic phenotype by some VERO cell lines.     

Evaluation of tumorigenic potential of high yielding cloned MDCK cells for live-attenuated influenza vaccine using in vitro growth characteristics,metastatic gene expression and in vivo nude mice model

Several mammalian cell lines, including Madin–Darby canine kidney (MDCK) cells have been approved by regulators for manufacturing of human vaccines. A new MDCK 9B9-1E4 cloned cell line has been created which is capable of producing live attenuated influenza vaccine (LAIV) with high yield. This cell line was shown to be non tumorigenic in eight week old adult athymic nude mouse model. This property is desirable for vaccine production and is unique to this cell line and is not known to be shared by other MDCK cell lines that are currently used for vaccine production. This significant difference in tumorigenic phenotype required further characterization of this cell line to ensure its safety for use in vaccine production. This is particularly important for LAIV production where it is not possible to incorporate a virus inactivation and/or removal step during manufacturing. Characterization of this cell line included extensive adventitious agent testing, tumorigenicity and oncogenicity assessment studies. Here, we describe the development of tumorigenic MDCK cell lines for use as positive controls and in vitro methods to aid in the evaluation of the tumorigenicity of MDCK 9B9-1E4 cloned cells. Tumorigenic MDCK cells were successfully generated following Hras and cMyc oncogene transfection of MDCK 9B9-1E4 cloned cells. In this study we demonstrate the lack of tumorigenic potential of the MDCK 9B9-1E4 cloned cell line in adult athymic nude mice model.     

人胎脑源性神经前体细胞致瘤性评价

目的:研究体外培养的人胎脑源性神经前体细胞的致瘤性。方法:将人胎脑源神经前体细胞体外培养至第1、25、40、60代,且每代细胞分别制备成神经球及单个细胞混悬液两种制剂,并取293T细胞作为阳性对照,共9组,每组5只,分别皮下接种于4~8周龄的BALB/C裸鼠,接种后饲养6个月,定期观察裸鼠精神状态、饮食、排便、以及接种局部有无出现结节或肿块,接种6个月后处死裸鼠,对接种局部及内脏进行组织病理切片及HE染色。结果:将人胎脑源性神经前体细胞接种于裸鼠皮下6个月未见肿瘤形成,且未见其他异常组织形成;而阳性对照组293T细胞接种于裸鼠皮下1个月后可见明显肿瘤形成。结论:人胎脑源神经前体细胞对裸鼠不具有体内致瘤性。     

动物细胞系的染色体组型与遗传变异率分析

在建立国内首家犬,猫,猴,鼠传代细胞库,即7种动物肾细胞系（F－81,CRFK,MDCK,Vero,Vero-2,MA-104,BHK-21)的种子库和工作库的基础上,通过细胞染色体组型,G带核型,染色体数目变异率,结构畸变率分析,了解7种细胞系传代培养不同代次的染色体变异情况,以相应的细胞株皮下接种褐 形成肿瘤实验,软琼脂细胞克隆一苦恼经与植物凝集素作用下细胞凝集实验为对照,筛选出无致癌／致瘤性,符合细胞遗传学要求,无传染因子污染的细胞系（F－81,CRFK,Vero,Vero-2)或极低致癌性的MDCK细胞系用于制苗,发现肿瘤细胞系高变异率株可在裸鼠体内快速选育成功,细胞系染色体遗传特征决定致性质并具有种属特异性,得到一些100％成瘤和100％不成瘤的细胞株并了与染色体组型的关系,对于肿瘤的发病机理及实验治疗,都是非常好的模型,一些细胞系不仅成瘤而且还可转移（致恶性横纹肌样瘤的BHK－21和Vero 细胞株）,其他致瘤细胞株只成瘤不转移或不明显转移。     

Early passage primate cell immortality is independent of tumorigenicity

Summary Seven continuous primate cell lines were tested in three systems (nude mice, muscle organ culture, and soft agarose) for their ability to express characteristics usually associated with malignant cell lines. Five of the seven cell lines failed to produce tumors in nude mice, failed to show a tumor-like pattern of growth in muscle organ culture, and failed to produce colonies in soft agarose. The remaining two cell lines showed different degrees of tumorigenicity in nude mice, and gave frankly positive results in the twoin vitro assays. In addition, one of these lines appeared to progress from potential to overt tumorigenicity. We conclude that acquisition of infinite life in primate cell lines is not invariably equivalent to the ability to form tumors.     

Mass production of animal cells in nude mice with retention of cell specific markers.

Biochemical analysis of macromolecular constituents of somatic cells in culture frequently requires the production of large quantities of cells from small initial populations, often a laborious and expensive procedure. Here we show that nude mice, because of their genetic immune deficiency, provide a relatively simple and reliable means of growing large quantities of cells irrespective of the species or tissue of origin. Most established animal cell lines are capable of growing as large tumors in these athymic mice. The passage of mammalian cells in nude mice does not cause either the loss or modification of specific biochemical, chromosomal, antigenic or other cellular markers, nor the induction of malignant transformation of the host cells. Tumors formed by the injected cells grow as localized, encapsulated masses, and host cell admixture due to elements of the vascular system in the tumor is variable but not extensive. Pure cultures of the original cell type can easily be recovered from the tumors if they are derived from previously established cell lines. The use of nude mice for large scale growth of animal cells is particularly advantageous for cell lines which are not adapted to mass suspension culture for highly differentiated functional tumor cells which cannot be grown in vitro.     

Vero细胞无血清培养技术的研究与应用

Vero细胞是世界卫生组织和我国生物制品规程认可的疫苗生产细胞系。随着对疫苗质量和安全性要求的不断提高,用无血清培养基取代含血清培养基培养Vero细胞已成为病毒疫苗生产的一个重要发展趋势。Vero细胞无血清培养的技术关键是研发或选择能支持细胞以贴附培养方式生长的无血清培养基。微载体培养是贴附依赖性细胞系规模化培养和病毒疫苗生产的有效技术途径。我们对Vero细胞无血清培养基的研发、Vero细胞无血清培养及病毒疫苗生产工艺做了讨论,对该领域存在的问题和发展策略进行了展望。     

人乳头瘤病毒16型E6和E7基因及其突变体转化活性的研究

为筛选出可用于研制HPV治疗性疫苗的HPV16型E6和E7基因突变体,故将HPV16型原型株(德国株)E6和E7基因及其各种突变体分别转染Balb/c3T3细胞,观察转染后的细胞在软琼脂培养中的集落形成能力和在裸鼠体内的成瘤能力.结果表明,单独转染和共转染HPV16野生型E6和E7基因的Balb/c3T3细胞系,在软琼脂中呈集落样生长,并在裸鼠体内成瘤;而转染E6基因突变体mE6(50G)、E7基因的两种突变体mE7-1(24G26G)和mE7-3(24G26G67R)以及共转染mE6和mE7-1的Balb/c3T3细胞,在软琼脂培养中极少形成集落,也不能在裸鼠体内成瘤.提示经结构改造后的HPV16 E6和E7基因已失去了对Balb/c3T3细胞的转化活性,而保留了免疫原性,可用于HPV16相关肿瘤治疗性疫苗的构建.     

恶性横纹肌样瘤（MRT）的起源研究——高变异率HeLa细胞致裸鼠产生MRT的实验研究

HeLa细胞KB株、X株、NM20／X株、H株的染色体众数依次为60±3（超二倍体）、62±3（超二倍体）、68±3（超二倍体和亚四倍体）和78±2（亚四倍体）,所占比率分别为72%～76%,69%,52%和40%。在纯化3代的肿瘤阴性对照二倍体猫肾（染色体众数38所占比率80%）和犬肾原代细胞皮下接种裸鼠的致癌／致瘤率分别为0%（0／22）和0%（0／10）,X株HeLa细胞冻融裂解物皮下接种裸鼠产生进行性缩小肿瘤的比率为20%（1／5）的前提下,HeLa细胞KB株、X株、NM20／X株皮下接种裸鼠产生进行性生长恶性肿瘤的比率分别为100%（10／ 10）,100%（25／25）和100%（5／5）,H株细胞皮下接种裸鼠产生恶性肿瘤的比率为50%（5／10）。其中,只有HeLa细胞KB株10～11代（染色体结构畸变率高达20%,出现18%双着丝点和2%断片）以超高数量接种的1组4只裸鼠（0.17ml12.75×10     

用于疫苗生产的人二倍体细胞研究进展*

人二倍体细胞(human diploid cells, HDCs)作为制备疫苗的重要培养细胞基质备受人们的关注。由于人二倍体细胞与人类基因组相同、无外源因子、对多种病毒易感性、无潜在致瘤性、所制备的人二倍体疫苗(human diploid cell vaccine, HDCV)具有良好的免疫原性和安全性,适合于疫苗的工业化生产。当前,人群中使用的灭活疫苗、减毒疫苗或亚单位疫苗等均依赖于原代细胞、传代细胞和人二倍体细胞,其中用于疫苗制备的人二倍体细胞主要有WI-38、MRC-5、2BS和KMB-17等细胞系。然而,人二倍体细胞为有限性细胞,细胞的来源和培养技术等存在某些缺陷,进而影响其应用。综述了用于疫苗生产的人二倍体细胞及其疫苗制备技术的研究进展,并分析了存在的问题及改进策略。     

Epstein-Barr virus in nontumorigenic and tumorigenic nasopharyngeal carcinoma (NPC) somatic cell hybrids

Somatic cell hybrids between mouse fibroblasts and human cells derived from nasopharyngeal carcinoma (NPC) biopsies or NPC tumors propagated in nude mice were examined for the expression of the Epstein-Barr nuclear antigen (EBNA), retention of Epstein-Barr viral (EBV) DNA, and tumorigenicity in nude mice. In all hybrids the expression of EBNA correlated with the detection of EBV-DNA. After more than 2 years in culture, the hybrids examined retained similar amounts of EBV-DNA when compared to previously published data. Retention of EBV-DNA did not correlate with the presence of any particular human chromosome. Use of either rodent cell lines, clone 1D or IT-22, did not affect the retention nor loss of EBV-DNA. For tumorigenicity studies, NPC cells were fused with IT-22 cells and injected into nude mice. Tumor formation did not depend on the presence or absence of EBNA and detectable EBV-DNA sequences; tumorigenicity in these studies could not be correlated with the presence of any particular human chromosome or the origin of the NPC biopsy.     

Development and strategies of cell-culture technology for influenza vaccine

Influenza is a pandemic contagious disease and causes human deaths and huge economic destruction of poultry in the world. In order to control and prevent influenza, mainly type A, influenza vaccine for human and poultry were available since the 1940s and 1920s, respectively. In the development of vaccine production, influenza viruses were cultured originally from chicken embryos to anchorage-dependent cell lines, such as MDCK and Vero. The anchorage-independent lines have also been used to produce influenza virus, such as PER.C6 and engineering modified MDCK and Vero. During the process of influenza vaccine production, the common problem faced by all producers is how to improve the titer of influenza virus. This paper focuses on the developments of cell culture for influenza virus vaccine production, limitations of cell culture, and relative strategies for improvement virus yields in cell-culture systems.     

Cellular tumorigenicity in nude mice. Role of susceptibility to natural killer cells

The athymic nude mouse is a useful animal model for assaying the neoplastic growth potential in vivo of animal cells transformed in vitro. Despite the demonstrated absence of thymus-dependent immunological functions, however, the nude mouse has now been shown to reject transplants of certain highly malignant heterologous tumors. In addition, a few transformed mammalian cell lines that exhibit all or most of the cellular phenotypes usually associated with malignancy fail to grow as tumors when injected into nude mice. In a continuing study to identify the in vitro phenotypes associated with tumor-forming ability in vivo, we investigated the role of cellular susceptibility to the naturally occurring, thymus-independent lymphocytes (natural killer or NK cells) in determining tumor induction by animal cells in nude mice. A representative collection of animal cells (ranging from normal human diploid cell strains to highly tumorigenic clonal cell lines, either transformed in vitro or derived from experimental tumors) was tested to see if the ability of cells to form tumors is consistently correlated with their susceptibility to NK cell-mediated lysis measured in vitro with splenic leukocytes from nude mice. If the physiological role of the NK cells in vivo were to recognize, and possibly to destroy, incipient tumor cells in situ, a direct association between cellular tumorigenicity and susceptibility to NK activity, might be expected. If, on the other hand, the formation of growing tumors by animal cells in nude mice depended on their ability to escape the cytolytic activity of NK cells, cellular tumorigenicity would be associated with cellular resistance to NK cells. Results obtained in this study failed to confirm either of these associations. Thus, cellular suscepbibility to NK cells, at least as determined by direct cytotoxicity assay in vitro, is not a useful predictive indicator of cellular tumorigenicity in nude mice.     

Cellular tumorigenicity in nude mice. Test of associations among loss of cell-surface fibronectin, anchorage independence, and tumor-forming ability

Fibronectin (FN; also called large external transformation-sensitive [LETS] protein or cell-surface protein [CSP]) is a large cell-surface glycoprotein that is frequently observed to be either absent or greatly reduced on the surfaces of malignant cells grown in vitro. Because FN may be a useful molecular marker of cellular malignancy, we have carried out an extensive screening to test the specific association among the degree of expression of FN, anchorage-independent growth, and tumorigenicity in the athymic nude mouse. A variety of diploid cell strains and established cell lines were tested for the expression of surface FN by indirect immunofluorescence using rabbit antisera against human cold insoluble globulin, rodent plasma FN, or chicken cell- surface FN. Concomitantly, the cells were assayed for tumor formation in nude mice and for the ability to form colonies in methylcellulose. Tumorigenic cells often showed very low surface fluorescence, confirming earlier reports. However, many highly tumorigenic fibroblast lines from several species stained strongly with all three antisera. In contrast, the anchorage-independent phenotype was nearly always associated with tumorigenicity in approximately 35 cell lines examined in this study. In another series of experiments, FN-positive but anchorage-independent cells were grown as tumors in nude mice and then reintroduced into culture. In five of the six tumor-derived cell lines, cell-surface FN was not significantly reduced; one such cell line showed very little surface FN. Our data thus indicate that the loss of cell-surface FN is not a necessary step in the process of malignant transformation and that the growth of FN-positive cells as tumors does not require a prior selection in vivo for FN-negative subpopulations.     

Toxoplasma gondii antigens: recovery analysis of tachyzoites cultivated in Vero cell maintained in serum free medium

Vero cells have been used successfully in Toxoplasma gondii maintenance. Medium supplementation for culture cells with fetal bovine serum is necessary for cellular growth. However, serum in these cultures presents disadvantages, such as the potential to induce hypersensitivity, variability of serum batches, possible presence of contaminants, and the high cost of good quality serum. Culture media formulated without any animal derived components, designed for serum-free growth of cell lines have been used successfully for different virus replication. The advantages of protozoan parasite growth in cell line cultures using serum-free medium remain poorly studied. Thus, this study was designed to determine whether T. gondii tachyzoites grown in Vero cell cultures in serum-free medium, after many passages, are able to maintain the same antigenic proprieties as those maintained in experimental mice. The standardization of Vero cell culture in serum-free medium for in vitro T. gondii tachyzoite production was performed establishing the optimal initial cell concentration for the confluent monolayer formation, which was 1×10(6) Vero cell culture as initial inoculum. The total confluent monolayer formatted after 96 h and the best amount of harvested tachyzoites was 2.1×10(7) using parasite inoculum of 1.5×10(6) after 7 days post-infection. The infectivity of tachyzoites released from Vero cells maintained in serum-free medium was evaluated using groups of Swiss mice infected with cell-culture tachyzoites. The parasite concentrations were similar to those for mice infected with tachyzoites collected from other infected mice. The data from both in vivo and in vitro experiments showed that in at least 30 culture cell passages, the parasites maintained the same infectivity as maintained in vivo. Another question was to know whether in the several continued passages, immunogenic progressive loss could occur. The nucleotide sequences studied were the same between the different passages, which could mean no change in their viability in the lysate antigen. Thus, the antigen production by cell culture has clear ethical and cost-saving advantages. Moreover, the use of culture media formulated without any human or animal derived components, designed for serum-free growth of cell lines, successfully produced tachyzoites especially for antigen production.     

Tumorigenicity of revertants from an SV40-transformed line

A syndrome of in vitro properties correlates with the tumorigenicity of SV40-transformed rodent cells. These properties are plasminogen activator production, loss of large actin cables, and anchorage-independent growth. An established rat fibroblast line, its SV40 transformant, several T-antigen negative revertants, and a spontaneous retransformant isolated form one of the revertants were analyzed in vivo for their tumorigenicity and in vitro for the syndrome. The two transformed lines were highly tumorigenic, and had clearly abnormal in vitro properties. The parental rat line was weakly tumorigenic in nude mice and demonstrated a slightly transformed response in the in vitro assays. The revertants were completely nontumorigenic. Expression of the in vitro syndrome was not uniform for all revertants; however, most cell lines maintained the correlation of the syndrome and tumorigenicity.