Types of animal cell cultures

Gonal-f Follicle-stimulating hormone Female infertility CHO 1995 

Simulect / basiliximab mAb Acute transplanted kidney rejection Murine myeloma 1998 

Avastin / bevacizumab Humanized mAb Colon or rectum carcinoma CHO 2004 

The main advantages of continuous cell lines are (i) faster cell growth, achieving high cell densities in culture, particularly in bioreactors (ii) the possible use of defined culture media available in the market, mainly serum-free and protein-free media and (iii) the potential to be cultured in suspension, in large-scale bioreactors. 

The major disadvantages of these cultures are the accentuated chromosomal instability, the larger phenotype variation in relation to the donor tissue, and the disappearance of specific and characteristic tissue markers (Freshney, 1994). 

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Occasionally, some of the animal cells in short-term cultures do not die, but instead survive indefinitely. These types of animal cell cultures, which can divide indefinitely, are called established cell lines. Established animal cell lines have been obtained from both normal and tumorigenic cells. Immortalized animal cell lines have also been successfully obtained from short-term cultures following their transformation with appropriate oncogenes. 

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