Karyotype Analysis

Abstract

The karyotype is one of the characteristics of a cell line. However, it is not necessarily the same as that of cells in vivo. During culture, the karyotype of cells often changes. Consequently, many continuous cell lines are polyploid or heteroploid. Usually, the chromosome number is distributed over a wide range. This pattern of distribution may change with passages. Therefore, the karyotype is one characteristic of a continuous cell line, but discrimination of cell lines according to karyotype is not possible, especially among cell lines derived from taxonomically close species. Nevertheless, the determination of karyotype is a basic requirement for describing continuous cell lines.