Vero cells are a lineage of

cells Cell most often refers to: * Cell (biology), the functional basic unit of life Cell may also refer to: Locations * Monastic cell, a small room, hut, or cave in which a religious recluse lives, alternatively the small precursor of a monastery w ...

used in

cell cultures Cell culture or tissue culture is the process by which cells are grown under controlled conditions, generally outside of their natural environment. The term "tissue culture" was coined by American pathologist Montrose Thomas Burrows. This tec ...

. The 'Vero' lineage was isolated from

kidney The kidneys are two reddish-brown bean-shaped organs found in vertebrates. They are located on the left and right in the retroperitoneal space, and in adult humans are about in length. They receive blood from the paired renal arteries; blood ...

epithelial Epithelium or epithelial tissue is one of the four basic types of animal tissue, along with connective tissue, muscle tissue and nervous tissue. It is a thin, continuous, protective layer of compactly packed cells with a little intercellula ...

cells extracted from an

African green monkey ''Chlorocebus'' is a genus of medium-sized primates from the family of Old World monkeys. Six species are currently recognized, although some people classify them all as a single species with numerous subspecies. Either way, they make up the ent ...

(''

Chlorocebus ''Chlorocebus'' is a genus of medium-sized primates from the family of Old World monkeys. Six species are currently recognized, although some people classify them all as a single species with numerous subspecies. Either way, they make up the enti ...

'' sp.; formerly called ''Cercopithecus aethiops'', this group of monkeys has been split into several different species). The lineage was developed on 27 March 1962, by Yasumura and Kawakita at the

Chiba University is a national university in the city of Chiba, Japan. It offers Doctoral degrees in education as part of a coalition with Tokyo Gakugei University, Saitama University, and Yokohama National University. The university was formed in 1949 from exist ...

in Chiba, Japan. The original cell line was named '' Vero'' after an

abbreviation An abbreviation (from Latin ''brevis'', meaning ''short'') is a shortened form of a word or phrase, by any method. It may consist of a group of letters or words taken from the full version of the word or phrase; for example, the word ''abbrevia ...

of , which means 'green kidney' in

Esperanto Esperanto ( or ) is the world's most widely spoken constructed international auxiliary language. Created by the Warsaw-based ophthalmologist L. L. Zamenhof in 1887, it was intended to be a universal second language for international communi ...

, while itself means 'truth' in Esperanto.

Characteristics

The Vero cell lineage is continuous and

aneuploid Aneuploidy is the presence of an abnormal number of chromosomes in a cell, for example a human cell having 45 or 47 chromosomes instead of the usual 46. It does not include a difference of one or more complete sets of chromosomes. A cell with any ...

, meaning that it has an abnormal number of

chromosomes A chromosome is a long DNA molecule with part or all of the genetic material of an organism. In most chromosomes the very long thin DNA fibers are coated with packaging proteins; in eukaryotic cells the most important of these proteins are ...

. A continuous cell lineage can be replicated through many cycles of division and not become

senescent Senescence () or biological aging is the gradual deterioration of functional characteristics in living organisms. The word ''senescence'' can refer to either cellular senescence or to senescence of the whole organism. Organismal senescence invol ...

. Vero cells are

interferon Interferons (IFNs, ) are a group of signaling proteins made and released by host cells in response to the presence of several viruses. In a typical scenario, a virus-infected cell will release interferons causing nearby cells to heighten the ...

-deficient; unlike normal mammalian cells, they do not secrete

alpha or beta when infected by viruses. However, they still have the

Interferon-alpha/beta receptor The interferon-α/β receptor (IFNAR) is a virtually ubiquitous membrane receptor which binds endogenous type I interferon (IFN) cytokines. Endogenous human type I IFNs include many subtypes, such as interferons-α, -β, -ε, -κ, -ω, and -ζ. ...

, so they respond normally when recombinant interferon is added to their culture media. The whole genome sequence of a Vero cell line was determined by Japanese investigators in 2014. Chromosome 12 of Vero cells has a homozygous ~9-Mb deletion, causing the loss of the

type I interferon The type-I interferons (IFN) are cytokines which play essential roles in inflammation, immunoregulation, tumor cells recognition, and T cell, T-cell responses. In the human genome, a cluster of thirteen functional IFN genes is located at the 9p2 ...

gene cluster and cyclin-dependent kinase inhibitors ''

CDKN2A CDKN2A, also known as cyclin-dependent kinase inhibitor 2A, is a gene which in humans is located at chromosome 9, band p21.3. It is ubiquitously expressed in many tissues and cell types. The gene codes for two proteins, including the INK4 family ...

'' and ''

CDKN2B Cyclin-dependent kinase 4 inhibitor B also known as multiple tumor suppressor 2 (MTS-2) or p15INK4b is a protein that is encoded by the ''CDKN2B'' gene in humans. Function This gene lies adjacent to the tumor suppressor gene CDKN2A in a region ...

'' in the genome. Although African green monkeys were previously classified as ''

Cercopithecus aethiops The vervet monkey (''Chlorocebus pygerythrus''), or simply vervet, is an Old World monkey of the family Cercopithecidae native to Africa. The term "vervet" is also used to refer to all the members of the genus ''Chlorocebus''. The five distinct ...

'', they have been placed within the genus ''

'', which includes several species. The genome analysis indicated that the Vero cell lineage is derived from a female ''

Chlorocebus sabaeus The green monkey (''Chlorocebus sabaeus''), also known as the sabaeus monkey, is an Old World monkey with golden-green fur and pale hands and feet. The tip of the tail is golden yellow as are the backs of the thighs and cheek whiskers. It does n ...

''.

Uses in research

Vero cells are used for many purposes, including: * screening for the toxin of ''

Escherichia coli ''Escherichia coli'' (),Wells, J. C. (2000) Longman Pronunciation Dictionary. Harlow ngland Pearson Education Ltd. also known as ''E. coli'' (), is a Gram-negative, facultative anaerobic, rod-shaped, coliform bacterium of the genus ''Escher ...

'', first named "Vero toxin" after this cell line, and later called "

Shiga-like toxin Shiga toxins are a family of related toxins with two major groups, Stx1 and Stx2, expressed by genes considered to be part of the genome of lambdoid prophages. The toxins are named after Kiyoshi Shiga, who first described the bacterial or ...

" due to its similarity to

Shiga toxin Shiga toxins are a family of related toxins with two major groups, Stx1 and Stx2, expressed by genes considered to be part of the genome of lambdoid prophages. The toxins are named after Kiyoshi Shiga, who first described the bacterial orig ...

isolated from ''

Shigella dysenteriae ''Shigella dysenteriae'' is a species of the rod-shaped bacterial genus ''Shigella''. ''Shigella'' species can cause shigellosis ( bacillary dysentery). Shigellae are Gram-negative, non-spore-forming, facultatively anaerobic, nonmotile bacteri ...

'' * as host cells for growing viruses; for example, to measure replication in the presence or absence of a research pharmaceutical, the testing for the presence of

rabies Rabies is a viral disease that causes encephalitis in humans and other mammals. Early symptoms can include fever and tingling at the site of exposure. These symptoms are followed by one or more of the following symptoms: nausea, vomiting, vi ...

virus, or the growth of viral stocks for research purposes. As a recent example,

CoronaVac CoronaVac, also known as the Sinovac COVID-19 vaccine, is a whole inactivated virus COVID-19 vaccine developed by the Chinese company Sinovac Biotech. It was Phase III clinical trialled in Brazil, Chile, Indonesia, the Philippines, and Turke ...

, COVID-19 vaccine developed by Sinovac Biotech uses vero cells in production and "Vero" term can be seen on the vaccine container. * as host cells for

eukaryotic Eukaryotes () are organisms whose cells have a nucleus. All animals, plants, fungi, and many unicellular organisms, are Eukaryotes. They belong to the group of organisms Eukaryota or Eukarya, which is one of the three domains of life. Bacte ...

parasite Parasitism is a close relationship between species, where one organism, the parasite, lives on or inside another organism, the host, causing it some harm, and is adapted structurally to this way of life. The entomologist E. O. Wilson has ...

s, specially of the

trypanosomatid Trypanosomatida is a group of kinetoplastid excavates distinguished by having only a single flagellum. The name is derived from the Greek ''trypano'' (borer) and ''soma'' (body) because of the corkscrew-like motion of some trypanosomatid species. ...

Lineages

* Vero
ATCC No. CCL-81
:Isolated from ''C. aethiops'' kidney on 27 Mar 1962 * Vero 76
ATCC No. CRL-1587
:Isolated from Vero in 1968, it grows to a lower saturation density (cells per unit area) than the original Vero. It is useful for detecting and counting

hemorrhagic fever Viral hemorrhagic fevers (VHFs) are a diverse group of animal and human illnesses in which fever and hemorrhage are caused by a viral infection. VHFs may be caused by five distinct families of RNA viruses: the families ''Filoviridae'', ''Flav ...

viruses by plaque assays. * Vero E6, also known as Vero C1008
ATCC No. CRL-1586
:This line is a clone from Vero 76. Vero E6 cells show some

contact inhibition In cell biology, contact inhibition refers to two different but closely related phenomena: contact inhibition of locomotion (CIL) and contact inhibition of proliferation (CIP). CIL refers to the avoidance behavior exhibited by fibroblast-like cells ...

, so are suitable for propagating viruses that replicate slowly. * Research strains transfected with viral genes: :Vero F6 is a cell transfected with the gene encoding HHV-1

entry Entry may refer to: *Entry, West Virginia, an unincorporated community in the United States *Entry (cards), a term used in trick-taking card-games *Entry (economics), a term in connection with markets * ''Entry'' (film), a 2013 Indian Malayalam fil ...

protein Proteins are large biomolecules and macromolecules that comprise one or more long chains of amino acid residues. Proteins perform a vast array of functions within organisms, including catalysing metabolic reactions, DNA replication, respo ...

glycoprotein Glycoproteins are proteins which contain oligosaccharide chains covalently attached to amino acid side-chains. The carbohydrate is attached to the protein in a cotranslational or posttranslational modification. This process is known as glycos ...

-H (gH). Vero F6 was transfected via a concatenated plasmid with the ''gH'' gene after a copy of the HHV-1 glycoprotein-D (gD) promoter region. In Vero lineage F6, expression of ''gH'' is under the control of the promoter region of gD. (Also F6B2; obs. F6B1.1)

References

External links

Cellosaurus entry for VeroCellosaurus entry for Vero 76Cellosaurus entry for Vero C1008Cellosaurus entry for Vero F6
{{DEFAULTSORT:Vero Cell Monkey cell lines

Characteristics

Uses in research

Lineages

See also

References

External links