Saos-2 ("
Sarcoma osteogenic") is a
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 ...
derived from the primary
osteosarcoma of an 11-year-old Caucasian girl in 1973 by Fogh ''et al''. The cell line is commonly used in bone cancer research as a model for testing novel therapies.
In 1987 Rodan ''et al''. determined that Saos-2 cells "possess several
osteoblast
Osteoblasts (from the Greek language, Greek combining forms for "bone", ὀστέο-, ''osteo-'' and βλαστάνω, ''blastanō'' "germinate") are cell (biology), cells with a single Cell nucleus, nucleus that synthesize bone. However, in the p ...
ic features and could be useful as a permanent line of human osteoblast-like cells and as a source of bone-related molecules."
Besides their worldwide availability, some of the advantages for using Saos-2 cell line are that they have well-documented characterization data, the possibility to obtain large amounts of cells in short time, and the fact that Saos-2 cells can be fully differentiated in a manner that the osteoblastic cells naturally do. The latter point is described particularly as "the ability of Saos-2 cells to deposit a mineralization-competent
extracellular matrix
In biology, the extracellular matrix (ECM), also called intercellular matrix, is a three-dimensional network consisting of extracellular macromolecules and minerals, such as collagen, enzymes, glycoproteins and hydroxyapatite that provide stru ...
", which makes these cells a valuable model for studying events associated with the late osteoblastic-osteocyte differentiation stage in human cells.
References
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External links
Information on Saos-2in the
DSMZ
The Leibniz Institute DSMZ - German Collection of Microorganisms and Cell Cultures GmbH (German: ''Leibniz-Institut DSMZ-Deutsche Sammlung von Mikroorganismen und Zellkulturen GmbH''), located in Braunschweig, is a research infrastructure in th ...
catalog
Information on Saos-2in the
ATCC catalog
Cellosaurus entry for Saos-2
Human cell lines