HLA class I and II genotype of the NCI-60 cell lines

Sixty cancer cell lines have been extensively characterized and used by the National Cancer Institute's Developmental Therapeutics Program (NCI-60) since the early 90's as screening tools for anti-cancer drug development. An extensive database has been accumulated that could be used to select individual cells lines for specific experimental designs based on their global genetic and biological profile. However, information on the human leukocyte antigen (HLA) genotype of these cell lines is scant and mostly antiquated since it was derived from serological typing. We, therefore, re-typed the NCI-60 panel of cell lines by high-resolution sequence-based typing. This information may be used to: 1) identify and verify the identity of the same cell lines at various institutions; 2) check for possible contaminant cell lines in culture; 3) adopt individual cell lines for experiments in which knowledge of HLA molecule expression is relevant. Since genome-based typing does not guarantee actual surface protein expression, further characterization of relevant cell lines should be entertained to verify surface expression in experiments requiring correct antigen presentation.