Cell Substrates for Vaccine Production & Testing

NIBSC acts as a central resource centre, providing quality controlled banks of cells for NIBSC batch release, WHO laboratory networks, National Control laboratories, manufacturers and other NIBSC collaborators. With the exception of human stem cell lines from the UK Stem Cell Bank NIBSC does not supply cells for general research applications. For stem cell lines please refer to http://www.stemcellbank.org.uk

Requests for cells for general research purposes are directed to public service collections, such as;

                  ECACC (http://www.hpacultures.org.uk/collections/ecacc.jsp)

                  ATCC (http://www.lgcstandards-atcc.org)

                  DSMZ (http://www.dsmz.de/)

A full list of cell culture collections can be found at the World Federation for Cell Culture Collections website (http://www.wfcc.info/). 

Available cell lines and prescribed uses

Please note, apart from MRC-5 PDL 12 (660902), none of the cells listed below are released as cell substrates for development of vaccine production

FOR VACCINE QA/QC TESTING AND ISOLATION:

The following cell lines are available to WHO polio network members for the isolation of polio virus and potency/safety testing of polio vaccines:

RD-CDC      (Accession No. 990825) From CDC, Atlanta, 1999

Hep2c        (Accession No. 740502) From Flow Laboratories, 1974

HeLa          (Accession No. 710101) Donated by PHLS Colindale, 1971

L20B          (Accession No. 910705) Donated by Columbia State University, 1991

FOR VIRUS ISOLATION ONLY:

For the isolation of mumps virus: (Available to WHO polio network members)

B95a          (Accession No. 001026) Donated by PHLS Colindale, 1971

For the isolation of influenza virus: (Available to NIBSC named collaborators)

MDCK          (Accession No. 821104) From Salisbury Common Cold Unit, 1982

FOR VACCINE SAFETY AND EFFICACY TESTING:

For the detection of Dengue specific antibodies in vaccinee sera: (Available to WHO Dengue vaccination programme network members)

Dengue-Vero (Accession No. 011038) From WHO, 2001

FOR VACCINE QA/QC TESTING ONLY:

The following cell lines are available to manufacturers/ National Control Laboratories/ WHO collaborators for the potency/safety testing of vaccines:

Vero - derived from WHO 10-87 (Accesion No. 880101) From Institut Merieux, 1988

MRC-5 PDL 15 (Accession No. 660902) Produced at MRC/NIBSC, 1966

FOR VACCINE DEVELOPMENT:

The following cell line is available  to Manufacturers/ National Control Laboratories/ WHO collaborators for the development of vaccine production:

MRC-5 PDL 12 (Accession No. 660902) Produced at MRC/NIBSC, 1966

if the intended purpose for your requested cell line falls outside of these prescribed uses nibsc will be unlikely to provide you with cells

For more information- see the cell requests information sheet

To request cells- please complete the form, and scan the signed form (preferably as a PDF) and e-mail it to Ross Hawkins (Ross.Hawkins@nibsc.hpa.org.uk)