Raji is the first continuous human

cell line An immortalised cell line is a population of cells from a multicellular organism which would normally not proliferate indefinitely but, due to mutation, have evaded normal cellular senescence and instead can keep undergoing division. The cell ...

hematopoietic Haematopoiesis (, from Greek , 'blood' and 'to make'; also hematopoiesis in American English; sometimes also h(a)emopoiesis) is the formation of blood cellular components. All cellular blood components are derived from haematopoietic stem cells. ...

origin. The Raji cell line is widely used as a transfection host. Raji cells were derived from the

B-lymphocytes B cells, also known as B lymphocytes, are a type of white blood cell of the lymphocyte subtype. They function in the humoral immunity component of the adaptive immune system. B cells produce antibody molecules which may be either secreted or ...

of an 11-year-old Nigerian

Burkitt lymphoma Burkitt lymphoma is a cancer of the lymphatic system, particularly B lymphocytes found in the germinal center. It is named after Denis Parsons Burkitt, the Irish surgeon who first described the disease in 1958 while working in equatorial Africa. ...

male patient in 1963 by R.J.V. Pulvertaft and was further worked on by B.O. Osunkoya (University College Hospital, Ibadan, Nigeria). The Raji cell line is categorized as lymphoblast-like. The culture medium used to grow Raji cells is

RPMI RPMI 1640, also known as RPMI medium, is a growth medium used in cell culture. RPMI 1640 was developed by George E. Moore, Robert E. Gerner, and H. Addison Franklin in 1966 at Roswell Park Comprehensive Cancer Center (formerly known as Roswell Park ...

supplemented with

serum Serum may refer to: *Serum (blood), plasma from which the clotting proteins have been removed **Antiserum, blood serum with specific antibodies for passive immunity * Serous fluid, any clear bodily fluid * Truth serum, a drug that is likely to mak ...

. Some characteristics of Raji cells include a lack of differentiation, illustrated by the formation of large

aggregation Aggregation may refer to: Business and economics * Aggregation problem (economics) * Purchasing aggregation, the joining of multiple purchasers in a group purchasing organization to increase their buying power * Community Choice Aggregation, the ...

s of hundreds of individual cells. The cells are relatively small in diameter (5-8 μm), have irregular indented nuclei, and almost extensive cytoplasm with free

ribosomes Ribosomes ( ) are macromolecular machines, found within all cells, that perform biological protein synthesis (mRNA translation). Ribosomes link amino acids together in the order specified by the codons of messenger RNA (mRNA) molecules to f ...

which tend to clump. Raji cells grow as single, non-motile, free-floating (non-adhesion) individuals or doublets to glass. Some cells look elongated, pear-shaped with larger, multinucleate, round cells. The Raji cell line produces an unusual strain of Epstein–Barr virus, which both transforms cord blood

lymphocytes A lymphocyte is a type of white blood cell (leukocyte) in the immune system of most vertebrates. Lymphocytes include natural killer cells (which function in cell-mediated, cytotoxic innate immunity), T cells (for cell-mediated, cytotoxic adap ...

and induces early antigens in the cells. Translocations between chromosomes 8 and 22 have occurred in all three variations of the Raji cell line, but some cells synthesize

immunoglobulin M Immunoglobulin M (IgM) is one of several isotypes of antibody (also known as immunoglobulin) that are produced by vertebrates. IgM is the largest antibody, and it is the first antibody to appear in the response to initial exposure to an antig ...

with light chains of the kappa type, in contrast to the usual concordance between a translocation involving chromosome 22 and lambda chain synthesis. Both kappa genes and one lambda gene are rearranged. These findings indicate either that translocation may occur as a separate event from immunoglobulin gene rearrangement or that the proposed hierarchical sequence of immunoglobulin gene rearrangements is not always adhered to. The data also imply that in cells containing a translocation between the long arm of chromosome 8 and a chromosome bearing an immunoglobulin gene, alteration of cellular myc expression may occur regardless of the immunoglobulin gene that is expressed. The cells grow in a suspension, are

diploid Ploidy () is the number of complete sets of chromosomes in a cell, and hence the number of possible alleles for autosomal and pseudoautosomal genes. Sets of chromosomes refer to the number of maternal and paternal chromosome copies, respectively ...

, and are

lymphoblastoid __NOTOC__ A lymphoblast is a modified naive lymphocyte with altered cell morphology. It occurs when the lymphocyte is activated by an antigen (from antigen-presenting cells) and increased in volume by nucleus and cytoplasm growth as well as new mRN ...

in morphology.

References

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External links

Cellosaurus entry for Raji
Human cell lines