Suricata_906
Suricata_906 t1_iw53p66 wrote
Reply to comment by scrangos in How do medical researchers obtain lab animals with diseases like specific forms of cancer which arise spontaneously? Do they raise thousands of apes and hope some eventually develop the disease? by userbrn1
No track record as far as I know, but everyone assumes they are not as originally isolated. HeLa cells still have the original HPV induced mutations but unspecified other ones. When was a lab worker, the protocol was to use cells like that for maybe 15-20 population doublings, then discontinue.
The ATCC (American Type Culture Collection) is the motherlode for all kinds of cells, from the fairly normal, to things like HeLa that I like to say would grow on walls!
Fun fact. Most cells cultures isolated from normal human tissues have an expiration date called the Hayflick Limit of 50 or so population doublings before they become senescent and won’t divide. immortalizing mutations of various kinds override that.
Suricata_906 t1_iw4gg08 wrote
Reply to comment by scrangos in How do medical researchers obtain lab animals with diseases like specific forms of cancer which arise spontaneously? Do they raise thousands of apes and hope some eventually develop the disease? by userbrn1
Yes, that is true, but it takes some rounds of replication . That’s why for studies you would want to freeze a big batch of tumor tissue or cells, take out a vial for to use once and go back for another vial later. Essentially you are minimizing genetic drift for experimental purposes. Not perfect, but then what is?
Suricata_906 t1_iw73dle wrote
Reply to comment by corduroy in How do medical researchers obtain lab animals with diseases like specific forms of cancer which arise spontaneously? Do they raise thousands of apes and hope some eventually develop the disease? by userbrn1
Thanks for pointing that out.