Evidence for selection in cultured diploid fibroblast strains

Single skin fibroblast cultures were established from 29 females heterozygous at the X-linked G-6-PD locus for Gd^B and an electrophoretic variant, Gd^A or Gd^A?. The cultures were transferred serially until they displayed single-enzyme phenotypes (only type A or type B enzyme) or until growth ceased. Single-enzyme phenotypes were observed in 19 instances. This occurred as early as the 4th, and as late as the 38th transfer. Ten cultures evolved A phenotypes and 9 developed B phenotypes. Possible explanations for the development of single-enzyme phenotypes include random cell-sampling during sub-culturing, selection or both. Selection occurring at least in part on the basis of X-linked loci other than G-6-PD seems most likely for those cultures which evolved rapidly to single-enzyme phenotypes, but sampling or selection or both could have played important roles in those cultures which maintained double-enzyme phenotypes for several passages and then rapidly developed single-enzyme phenotypes. In any event, the results indicate that it should not be assumed in investigations using cultivated diploid fibroblasts that the latter are generally representative of the tissue-as-a-whole from which the cultures originate.