Throughout our project we worked with 4 mammalian cell lines:

HEK293

Human embryonic kidney cells 293

HEK293 are a widely used adherent cell line, derived from human embryonic kidney cells, that was transformed by human adenovirus 5 DNA. ^[1] We chose these cells one of our two HSC models because they are easy to grow in culture, and highly susceptible to chemical transfection.

The cells were kindly provided by Professor Roee Amit's Laboratory.

HPC-7

HPC-7 cells are immortalized murine hematopoietic progenitor cells. This cell line was created by transfecting murine embryonic stem cells with the LHx2 gene. ^[2] The differentiating potential of these cells is unclear. While they are considered multipotent ^{[3] [4]} , it appears that they are actually common myeloid progenitors according to a paper from 1998. ^[5]

The cells are grown in suspension, and are very fragile and difficult to grow and transfect.

HPC-7 cells were chosen as our second model cell line because they display many characteristics of hematopoietic stem cells ^[2] and serve as a recognized model for HSCs ^[3] . The cells were kindly given to us by Professor Ben-Zion Levi's Laboratory.

WEHI-231

WEHI-231 cells are a murine immature B cell lymphoma line. These suspension cells express the phenotype of immature B cells and display IgM antibodies on their membrane. These features made them perfect for our proof of concept experiment , thus they served as B cells model. The cells were kindly provided by Professor Doron Melamed's Laboratory.

CHO-SCF

Chinese hamster ovary cells are epithelial cells derived from a hamster's ovary.

These adherent cells are known for their ability to secrete proteins into the cell culture supernatant. We utilized this property to create stem cell factor, which needed in order to grow the HPC-7 cells. The cells were kindly given by Professor Ben-Zion Levi's Laboratory.