Vero cells are lineages of cells

Cell (biology)

The cell is the basic structural and functional unit of all known living organisms. It is the smallest unit of life that is classified as a living thing, and is often called the building block of life. The Alberts text discusses how the "cellular building blocks" move to shape developing embryos....

 used in cell cultures.

The Vero lineage was isolated from kidney

Kidney

The kidneys, organs with several functions, serve essential regulatory roles in most animals, including vertebrates and some invertebrates. They are essential in the urinary system and also serve homeostatic functions such as the regulation of electrolytes, maintenance of acid–base balance, and...

 epithelial cells extracted from an African green monkey (Chlorocebus

Chlorocebus

Chlorocebus is a genus of medium-sized primates from the family of Old World monkeys. There are six species currently recognized, although some classify them all as a single species with numerous subspecies...

 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

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.-Faculties:*Letters*Education*Law and Economics*Science...

 in Chiba, Japan

Chiba, Chiba

is the capital city of Chiba Prefecture, Japan. It is located approximately 40 km east of the center of Tokyo on Tokyo Bay. Chiba City became a government designated city in 1992. Its population as of 2008 is approximately 960,000....

. The original cell line was named "Vero" after an abbreviation

Abbreviation

An abbreviation is a shortened form of a word or phrase. Usually, but not always, it consists of a letter or group of letters taken from the word or phrase...

 of "Verda Reno", which means "green kidney" in esperanto

Esperanto

is the most widely spoken constructed international auxiliary language. Its name derives from Doktoro Esperanto , the pseudonym under which L. L. Zamenhof published the first book detailing Esperanto, the Unua Libro, in 1887...

, while "vero" itself means "truth" also in Esperanto.

Vero cells are used for many purposes, including:

• screening for the toxin of Escherichia coli
  Escherichia coli
  Escherichia coli is a Gram-negative, rod-shaped bacterium that is commonly found in the lower intestine of warm-blooded organisms . Most E. coli strains are harmless, but some serotypes can cause serious food poisoning in humans, and are occasionally responsible for product recalls...
  
  , first named "Vero toxin" after this cell line, and later called "Shiga-like toxin
  Shiga-like toxin
  Shiga-like toxin, also known as verotoxin, is a toxin generated by some strains of Escherichia coli . It is named for its similarity to the AB5-type Shiga toxin produced by the bacteria Shigella dysenteriae....
  
  " due to its similarity to Shiga toxin
  Shiga toxin
  Shiga toxins are a family of related toxins with two major groups, Stx1 and Stx2, whose genes are considered to be part of the genome of lambdoid prophages. The toxins are named for Kiyoshi Shiga, who first described the bacterial origin of dysentery caused by Shigella dysenteriae. The most common...
  
   isolated from Shigella dysenteriae
  Shigella dysenteriae
  Shigella dysenteriae is a species of the rod-shaped bacterial genus Shigella. Shigella can cause shigellosis . Shigellae are Gram-negative, non-spore-forming, facultatively anaerobic, non-motile bacteria.S...
  
  .
• as host cells for growing virus; for example, to measure replication in the presence or absence of a research pharmaceutical, the testing for the presence of rabies
  Rabies
  Rabies is a viral disease that causes acute encephalitis in warm-blooded animals. It is zoonotic , most commonly by a bite from an infected animal. For a human, rabies is almost invariably fatal if post-exposure prophylaxis is not administered prior to the onset of severe symptoms...
  
   virus, or the growth of viral stocks for research purposes.
• as host cells for eukaryotic
  Eukaryote
  A eukaryote is an organism whose cells contain complex structures enclosed within membranes. Eukaryotes may more formally be referred to as the taxon Eukarya or Eukaryota. The defining membrane-bound structure that sets eukaryotic cells apart from prokaryotic cells is the nucleus, or nuclear...
  
   parasites, specially of the Trypanosomatids.

The Vero cell lineage is continuous and aneuploid. A continuous cell lineage can be replicated through many cycles of division and not become senescent. Aneuploidy

Aneuploidy

Aneuploidy is an abnormal number of chromosomes, and is a type of chromosome abnormality. An extra or missing chromosome is a common cause of genetic disorders . Some cancer cells also have abnormal numbers of chromosomes. Aneuploidy occurs during cell division when the chromosomes do not separate...

 is the characteristic of having an abnormal number of chromosomes.

Vero cells are interferon

Interferon

Interferons are proteins made and released by host cells in response to the presence of pathogens—such as viruses, bacteria, or parasites—or tumor cells. They allow communication between cells to trigger the protective defenses of the immune system that eradicate pathogens or tumors.IFNs belong to...

-deficient; unlike normal mammalian cells, they do not secrete type 1 interferons when infected by viruses. However, they still have the Interferon-alpha/beta receptor

Interferon-alpha/beta receptor

The interferon-α/β receptor is a receptor which binds type I interferons including interferon-α and -β. It is a heteromeric receptor composed of one chain with two subunits referred to as IFNAR1 and IFNAR2. It is a cell surface receptor. Binding of cytokine follows a JAK-STAT signaling pathway...

 so they respond normally when interferon from another source is added to the culture.

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.

• Vero E6 cells often fail in cultures and are being used in brain transplant (ATCC No. CRL-1586)

This line is a clone from Vero 76.

• Research strains transfected with viral genes:

Vero F6 is a cell transfected with the gene encoding HHV-1

Herpesviridae

The Herpesviridae are a large family of DNA viruses that cause diseases in animals, including humans. The members of this family are also known as herpesviruses. The family name is derived from the Greek word herpein , referring to the latent, recurring infections typical of this group of viruses...

 entry

Viral entry

Viral entry is the earliest stage of infection in the viral life cycle, as the virus comes into contact with the host cell and introduces viral material into the cell. The major steps involved in viral entry are shown below. Despite the variation among viruses, the generalities are quite similar...

 protein

Protein

Proteins are biochemical compounds consisting of one or more polypeptides typically folded into a globular or fibrous form, facilitating a biological function. A polypeptide is a single linear polymer chain of amino acids bonded together by peptide bonds between the carboxyl and amino groups of...

 glycoprotein

Glycoprotein

Glycoproteins are proteins that contain oligosaccharide chains covalently attached to polypeptide side-chains. The carbohydrate is attached to the protein in a cotranslational or posttranslational modification. This process is known as glycosylation. In proteins that have segments extending...

-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)