cell line selection? - suggestions (May/05/2006 )
I'm looking to work with a mammalian cell line that's easy to deal with and divides quickly. The purpose is for optimizing a protocol that ultimately could be performed in any cell type. Initially I want something easy to use before trying more difficult cases. The natural choice is HeLa cells, but I don't want the trouble of potential contamination in my other cells.
Any suggestions would be great.
not too sure if i'm getting all right, but cells don't fly, and so contamination depends only of you and the may you manage your exp...
Ya, I realize cells don't fly. But I'd rather be safe. When one cell can contaminate and ruin another culture, why work with it if you don't have to? It's common sense.
You mean you fear you would maybe end up contaminating your other cells with e.g. Hela's?
I'm working with a lot of cell lines these days (as do other people in our lab) and no one has ever encountered this problem. (to give you an example: for the moment I have Hela, 293-T, 3 different stably selected U87 cells, C8166, MT-4, MT-2, Jurkat, Hut-78, CEM and SupT1, and there are severall others in the same incubator/treated in the same laminar flow cabin and we had no contamination so far)
Jaknight, what do you mean by "easy to work with"? In terms of easy to transfect, I would definitely use 293 as they can be easily transfected with CaPO4 (which is also very cheap...). However, they don't appear "nice", and some subtypes needs to be grown on collagen coated plates. NIH3T3 are very easy to grow and appear nicer. CHO are also nice - they are perfect for microscopy photos.
The bottom line is - specifiy the purpose of your work.
Vairus, that is my fear. I don't know how real it is, but a lot is made of the potential for hela contamination. Maybe I'm too paranoid.
What I need cells for is protein. I need lysate from a mammalian system. Don't need to transfect or do microscropy, just lysate. I suppose by easy to work with I mean not having to spend much time working on them. A simple protocol I guess, along with rapid and reliable growth.
Is there any reason why Hela cells would contaminate your other cells easier than NIH3T3, CHO, 293, any other cell line? If you follow basic cell culture procedures, there shouldn't be a problem. If you don't trust it, split your hela cells, or work with them, and afterwards, spray 70% EtOH in the flow cabin, shut it down, come back an hour later and start working with your other cells (though I don't think this is necessary at all).