概要：The WI-38 cell line was the first human diploid cell line to be used to make vaccines for humans.
It may have had a more significant impact on science and medicine than the well-known HeLa cell line.
The cells were derived from normal embryonic lung tissue of a 3-month-old fetus, obtained from an elective abortion in Sweden in 1963.
The WI-38 cells have been and still are used to produce a variety of vaccines for various virus-based diseases such as poliomyelitis, measles, mumps, rubella, varicella, herpes zoster, adenovirus, rabies, and Hepatitis A.
Sanofi-Pasteurs Imovax rabies vaccine and Mercks chicken pox and shingles vaccines are grown in MRC-5 cells.
Mercks rubella vaccine, Hepatitis A vaccines from both Merck and GlaxoSmithKline, the polio part of Sanofi Pasteurs Quadracel vaccine, and the U.S.
militarys adenovirus vaccine are all grown in WI-38 cells.
WI-38 cells have a finite lifespan of roughly 50 population doublings, with a doubling time of 24 hours.
They are susceptible to various viruses, including vesicular stomatitis, Glasgow (Indiana), herpes simplex virus, pseudorabies virus, and human poliovirus 1.
The initials WI represent the Wistar Institute of Anatomy and Biology in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania, where the early work on the cell line was done.
