Ye Fang, Chen Chuguang, Qin Jian, Liu Jie, Zheng Congyi
*China Center for Type Culture Collection and State Key Laboratory of Virology, College of Life Sciences, Wuhan University, Wuhan, China; and Beijing Microread Genetics Company, Limited, Beijing, China.
*China Center for Type Culture Collection and State Key Laboratory of Virology, College of Life Sciences, Wuhan University, Wuhan, China; and Beijing Microread Genetics Company, Limited, Beijing, China
FASEB J. 2015 Oct;29(10):4268-72. doi: 10.1096/fj.14-266718. Epub 2015 Jun 26.
Cell lines are widely used as in vitro model systems in biologic and medical research. However, much of the research has been invalidated by the unwitting use of false cell lines. A significant proportion of the research involving human cell lines was initiated in China. Paradoxically, the cell lines used in China have never been authenticated. Here, we present a comprehensive survey of cross-contamination in 380 samples from 113 independent sources in China using short tandem repeat profiling methods. High levels of cross-contamination were uncovered (95 of 380, 25%). Notable false cell lines (e.g., KB and WISH) are still actively used under their false identity and tissue attributions. Most strikingly, 85.51% of lines established in China were misidentified (59 of 69) and accounted for over half of the misidentifications (59 of 95, 62.11%). Further, 93.22% of the contaminants in cell lines established in laboratories of China were HeLa cells or a possible hybrid of HeLa with an unknown cell line. Results from these misidentified lines have been published in thousands of potentially erroneous articles and may have distorted the findings visible to the scientific community. False lines have been used in drug screening, potentially leading to unusable or even harmful therapeutic strategies. We also noted the causes of contamination and provided suggestions for remediation.
细胞系作为生物学和医学研究中的体外模型系统被广泛使用。然而，许多研究因无意中使用了错误的细胞系而无效。涉及人类细胞系的研究很大一部分在中国开展。矛盾的是，中国使用的细胞系从未经过鉴定。在此，我们使用短串联重复序列分析方法对来自中国113个独立来源的380个样本中的交叉污染情况进行了全面调查。发现了高水平的交叉污染（380个样本中有95个，占25%）。显著的错误细胞系（如KB和WISH）仍以其错误的身份和组织归属被积极使用。最引人注目的是，在中国建立的细胞系中有85.51%被错误鉴定（69个中有59个），且占错误鉴定的一半以上（95个中有59个，占62.11%）。此外，在中国实验室建立的细胞系中，93.22%的污染物是HeLa细胞或HeLa与未知细胞系的可能杂交体。这些错误鉴定的细胞系所产生的结果已发表在数千篇可能存在错误的文章中，可能扭曲了科学界可见的研究结果。错误的细胞系已被用于药物筛选，可能导致不可用甚至有害的治疗策略。我们还指出了污染的原因并提供了补救建议。
