CV-1 Cells

CV-1 is a African green monkey cell line derived from the kidney in 1964. Initially used in research that focused on the transformation of the cancerogenic Rous sarcoma virus (RSV), this fibroblast-like cell line is widely used in biological research for virus production, transfection, and gene silencing. These cells are negative for reverse transcriptase and being susceptible to several viruses, including poliovirus 1, herpes simplex, simian virus 40 (SV40), California encephalitis, and both Eastern and Western equine encephalitis. The CV-1 cell line exhibits rapid growth, grows adherent on plastic and glass surfaces and shows chromosome number shifts at high passage levels. It has been observed that CV-1 cells exhibit increased tumorigenicity in Wistar rats treated with ATG as well as increased cell colony formation in soft agar. Moreover, CV-1 cells support the replication of SV40 virus and exhibit rapid thymidine kinase (TK) activity following induction of simian, adeno, and papovavirus infections. The karyotype of CV-1 cells is 2n = 60, pseudodiploid. CV-1 cells have been used in a variety of specific applications in biological research, including efficacy testing, transfection host, and viruscide testing. They are also known to be a suitable host for transfection, especially by SV40 vectors.