LGC Standards has launched a service designed to help researchers establish the identity of the human immortal cell lines used in its laboratory.
The service utilises short tandem repeat (STR) profiling, a widely used technique established in forensic science.
To discover new therapeutic drugs and drug targets, cell-based in-vitro models of a specific human disease or organ target are used in preference to animal models.
The most common of these in-vitro model systems is the immortal cell line, which can be used to mimic particular characteristics of their original organ as either 'normal' tissue or be representative of a specific disease state.
Breast cancer research, for example, commonly utilises cancer cell lines derived from actual breast tumours in testing the efficacy of potential chemotherapeutics.
Recent studies, however, have indicated that as many as 16 per cent of these cell lines used in research are either misidentified or contaminated.
In late 2007, journalist Tom Fielden presented a programme (as part of BBC Radio 4's 'File on 4' investigative series) in which he claimed that millions of pounds of charity money were being wasted by researchers who were working with cell lines that were not what they believed them to be.
The full extent of this situation was recently highlighted by the publication of the ATCC Standards Development Organisation working group's Perspective publication in the journal 'Nature Reviews Cancer'.
This Perspective identified STR profiling as the preferred method of in-vitro human cell-line authentication.
The routine screening of cell lines used to model disease in medical research is increasingly recognised as an important tool in ensuring the quality of published research data; data which is supported by grants from both government and charitable organisations across the UK.
LGC Standards is able to provide support to researchers as they work through the process of authenticating their cell lines.
