how long can cell lines be carried? - (Aug/06/2006 )

I heard that cell lines cannot be carried for too long a time. I am wondering what is the exact upper limit. If it depends on the cell lines, how about MDA-MB-453 and MCF-7?

Thanks in advance for any help!

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I would continue to use them as long as there are no morphological changes visible. When your cells start looking different in shape/size/and behave differently ( adherence/interaction with other cells change) or when your experiments simply stop working, then it is time to thaw out a low passage vial for use.

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I agree and also use cells this way. But it is said the fibroblast cell lines only can be used before p35 theoretically... I don't know whether there is such rule for MCF-7... But I always feel cancer cells last longer.

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I agree with others. Cancerous cells in general have high passage limits. Most of them grow excellently even after passage # 120 and above except a few. But the experimenters set limits to the passage # for each cell line because of differential responses in assays. For example : A549 has a higher passage # limit set at P162. MCF7...........I grew the cells .........but limiting passage #.. I don't know.

Non cancerous cells - I guess slow down in growth after certain passage # and eventually die away.

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I agree that you can use a cell line until it begins to change.

But for transfection I would prefer using recently thawed cells to be sure that occurring effects are because of the transfection not because of age.

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The maximum passage number for non-immortalised cell lines is called the Hayflick number, and varies according to type of cell.

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