3T3 cells

3T3 cells are several cell lines of mouse embryonic fibroblasts. The original 3T3 cell line (3T3-Swiss albino) was established in 1962 by two scientists then at the Department of Pathology in the New York University School of Medicine, George Todaro and Howard Green. Todaro and Green originally obtained their 3T3 cells from Swiss albino mouse embryo tissue. Later, as a principal investigator position at the National Cancer Institute in Bethesda, Maryland, Todaro repeated the isolation procedure from the NIH Swiss mouse embryo with his students and established NIH-3T3 cell line.

3T3 cells are a well-known line of immortalized mouse fibroblasts that were established in 1963 by George Todaro and Howard Green. They are among the most widely used cell lines in biological research and serve as one of the model systems for studying cell proliferation, cancer transformation, and adipocyte differentiation. Over the decades, 3T3 cells have given rise to multiple different sublines such as NIH-3T3, 3T3-Swiss albino, and 3T3-L1 that each have specialized application in different branches of cell and molecular biology.