Quality Check in Oral Cell Lines: The Need for Molecular Characterization

Oral cell lines have provided valuable insights into the various molecular pathways in oral carcinogenesis. Several landmark studies in oral oncology have utilized commercially available normal, dysplastic and cancer cell lines to decode the genetic alterations leading to the development of oral cancer. Most of these studies have shown a significant degree of variation in their mutation landscapes. These variations were thought to represent the heterogeneity of oral cancer.(1) But in a recent study, Dickman et al have shown that normal and dysplastic cell lines carry specific genetic alterations within the parent cell line, thus questioning the authenticity of several published mutation profiles. These genetic alterations in the commercial cell lines have been attributed to several factors, the most common being immortalization. Normal and dysplastic cell lines unlike cancer cell lines attain senescence following limited number of replication. Immortalization of the normal and dysplastic cell lines would aid the researcher in maintaining a viable population of cells for further studies. Ideally, the immortalized cell line must possess potential for indefinite replication and must retain the genetic makeup of its parent cell line.(2).