Hi
In my laboratory, we have been using several cell lines obtained from ATCC for our research, including HDFa, HUVECs, IMR90, WI38, and 293T. Over the years, we have made multiple purchases of the same cell line and do some ngs sequence. For instance, we may have acquired HDFa cells in a previous purchase many years ago, and subsequently obtained additional HDFa cells in recent years.
My concern is whether the biological sources (i.e., donors) for the same cell lines name from different purchases are consistent. If they are not consistent, I would like to know how I can determine which cell lines are from the same biological source and which ones are not. My colleagues believe that it is possible that ATCC continuously cultures and supplements non-immortalized cell lines from the same tissue of different donors, and names them the same name (such as HDFa) based on the name of the tissue and some characteristics. However, I have not found any documents to support or deny this.
Sincerely
This is a genuine concern and affects other types of materials like bacterial cultures (which can undergo a more rapid change when cultured in lab or cultures can become contaminated with mycoplasma etc).
It sounds like you are concerned with some specific cell lines. You could do exome sequencing by capture if you are worried about coding regions and try to compare the cell lines. In any case this will require some expense and effort.
Some of my colleagues believe that it is possible that ATCC continuously cultures and supplements non-immortalized cell lines from the same tissue of different donors, and names them the same name (such as HDFa) based on the name of the tissue and some characteristics. However, I have not found any documents to support or deny this.