Morally Illicit Cells in Medical Research

The Catholic Church missed an opportunity to be more proactive and change the course of secular biotechnology when unethical cell lines were first introduced several decades ago. No ethical alternative human cell lines to the HEK293, WI-38, and MRC-5 have been generally accepted by the scientific community. While some animal cell lines are used in creating safe alternative vaccines, no alternative human cell lines for producing vaccines, biologics, or gene therapy have met the scientific rigor of efficacy and safety of these cell lines. It is both possible and within reach to create ethical human cell lines to replace current morally objectionable lines used for producing biologics (proteins and vaccines), but it will take considerable research that requires financial support. Dignitas personae should be backed by leadership and supported by stakeholders.

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Treatment of human cell lines with 5-azacytidine may result in profound alterations in clonogenicity and growth rate.

The Journal of Cell Biology ◽

10.1083/jcb.100.2.508 ◽

1985 ◽

Vol 100 (2) ◽

pp. 508-513 ◽

Cited By ~ 9

Author(s):

L Olsson ◽

C Due ◽

M Diamant

Keyword(s):

Cell Growth ◽

Cell Lines ◽

Human Cell ◽

Agar Medium ◽

Animal Cell ◽

Resistant Cell ◽

Population Doubling ◽

Gene Repertoire ◽

Human Cell Lines ◽

Growth Properties

Liquid medium cultures of three human cell lines (B-lymphoma, myeloma, and squamous lung carcinoma) with population-doubling times (PDT) and cloning efficiencies (CE) in the range of 32-43 h and 0.01-5.6%, respectively, were exposed to 5-azacytidine (5-azaC) for 3 d. The doses used (1-3 microM) were found to be nontoxic as measured by cell growth in liquid and semisolid agar medium and to be nonmutagenic as measured by the rate of generation of ouabain- and 6-thioguanine-resistant cell variants. After 5-azaC treatment, cell samples were subsequently harvested every day and assayed for their CE in semisolid agar medium. For each cell line, 30 to 42 individual clones were harvested at the day of maximal CE and expanded in liquid culture medium. PDT and CE were determined for each subclone about every 6 wk for 12 mo. The majority of the subclones had unaltered PDT and CE compared to the original lines. However, several clones had profoundly changed proliferative activity with PDT on approximately 12-14 h and/or CE 5 to greater than 50%. Some of the clones with altered growth properties reverted to PDT and/or CE values of untreated clones. However, a few clones of each line had stable alterations with PDT on 12-14 h and CE 5 to greater than 50%; these clones were all significantly hypomethylated. It is concluded that the human gene repertoire does contain genes that appropriately activated can result in growth properties with very short PDT and high CE (and comparable to animal cell lines), and that this activation may be obtained by 5-azaC treatment. It is conceivable that the procedure here described to alter growth properties of human cell lines may be applied to experimental situations, where alterations of cell growth properties are desired.

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HEK293 Cell Line as a Platform to Produce Recombinant Proteins and Viral Vectors

Frontiers in Bioengineering and Biotechnology ◽

10.3389/fbioe.2021.796991 ◽

2021 ◽

Vol 9 ◽

Author(s):

Evan Tan ◽

Cara Sze Hui Chin ◽

Zhi Feng Sherman Lim ◽

Say Kong Ng

Keyword(s):

Host Cell ◽

Cell Lines ◽

Recombinant Proteins ◽

Human Cell ◽

Viral Vectors ◽

Animal Cell ◽

Hek293 Cells ◽

Human Cell Lines ◽

Post Translational Modifications ◽

Serum Free Suspension

Animal cell-based expression platforms enable the production of complex biomolecules such as recombinant proteins and viral vectors. Although most biotherapeutics are produced in animal cell lines, production in human cell lines is expanding. One important advantage of using human cell lines is the increased potential that the resulting biotherapeutics would carry more “human-like” post-translational modifications. Among the human cell lines, HEK293 is widely utilized due to its high transfectivity, rapid growth rate, and ability to grow in a serum-free, suspension culture. In this review, we discuss the use of HEK293 cells and its subtypes in the production of biotherapeutics. We also compare their usage against other commonly used host cell lines in each category of biotherapeutics and summarise the factors influencing the choice of host cell lines used.

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