Short-term line of normal baboon mammary epithelial cells.

Cells from the breast fluids of 27 baboons (Papio anubis), 4 stump-tailed macaques (Macaca arctoides), and 5 rhesus macaques (M. mulatta) were grown in primary culture. A short-term mammary epithelial cell line (7 passages) was derived from cells of the breast fluids of 1 baboon. These cells were characterized as normal, epithelial, and baboon, by karyology, growth in both soft agar and methyl cellulose, and morphology by light and electron microscopy. Papanicolaou smears of breast fluid and mammography of the baboon revealed no abnormalities. The cells showed no evidence of tumor virus production.