Vero cells are a lineage of
cells used in
cell cultures. The 'Vero' lineage was isolated from
kidney
In humans, the kidneys are two reddish-brown bean-shaped blood-filtering organ (anatomy), organs that are a multilobar, multipapillary form of mammalian kidneys, usually without signs of external lobulation. They are located on the left and rig ...
epithelial cells extracted from an
African green monkey (''
Chlorocebus'' 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 in
Chiba, Japan.
The original cell line was named ''
Vero'' after an
abbreviation
An abbreviation () is a shortened form of a word or phrase, by any method including shortening (linguistics), shortening, contraction (grammar), contraction, initialism (which includes acronym), or crasis. An abbreviation may be a shortened for ...
of , which means 'green kidney' in
Esperanto
Esperanto (, ) is the world's most widely spoken Constructed language, constructed international auxiliary language. Created by L. L. Zamenhof in 1887 to be 'the International Language' (), it is intended to be a universal second language for ...
, while itself means 'truth' in Esperanto.
Characteristics
The Vero cell lineage is continuous and
aneuploid, meaning that it has an abnormal number of
chromosomes. A
continuous cell lineage can be replicated through many cycles of division and not become
senescent.
Vero cells are
interferon-deficient; unlike normal mammalian cells, they do not secrete
interferon alpha or beta when infected by viruses.
However, they still have the
Interferon-alpha/beta receptor, 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 gene cluster and cyclin-dependent kinase inhibitors ''
CDKN2A'' and ''
CDKN2B'' in the genome.
Although African green monkeys were previously classified as ''
Cercopithecus aethiops'', they have been placed within the genus ''
Chlorocebus'', which includes several species.
The genome analysis indicated that the Vero cell lineage is derived from a female ''
Chlorocebus sabaeus''.
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. is a gram-negative, facultative anaerobic, rod-shaped, coliform bacterium of the genus '' Escherichia'' that is commonly fo ...
'', first named "Vero toxin" after this cell line, and later called "
Shiga-like toxin" due to its similarity to
Shiga toxin isolated from ''
Shigella dysenteriae''
* 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. It was historically referred to as hydrophobia ("fear of water") because its victims panic when offered liquids to drink. Early symptoms can include fever and abn ...
virus, or the growth of viral stocks for research purposes. As a recent example,
CoronaVac, 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
The eukaryotes ( ) constitute the Domain (biology), domain of Eukaryota or Eukarya, organisms whose Cell (biology), cells have a membrane-bound cell nucleus, nucleus. All animals, plants, Fungus, fungi, seaweeds, and many unicellular organisms ...
parasite
Parasitism is a Symbiosis, close relationship between species, where one organism, the parasite, lives (at least some of the time) on or inside another organism, the Host (biology), host, causing it some harm, and is Adaptation, adapted str ...
s, specially of the
trypanosomatids
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 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, 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), ''Entry'' (film), a 2013 Indian ...
protein
Proteins are large biomolecules and macromolecules that comprise one or more long chains of amino acid residue (biochemistry), residues. Proteins perform a vast array of functions within organisms, including Enzyme catalysis, catalysing metab ...
glycoprotein-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)
See also
*
HeLa cells
*
Immortalised cell line
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