NIH 3T3 CFTR on QPatch

NIH/3T3 is a mouse embryonic fibroblast cell line. NIH/3T3 cells are established from NIH Swiss mouse embryos. These cells are highly contact inhibited and are sensitive to sarcoma virus focus formation and leukaemia virus propagation. These cells have now lost their contact inhibition. Contact inhibition is the natural process of arresting cell growth when two or more cells come into contact with each other. The established NIH/3T3 line was subjected to more than 5 serial cycles of subcloning in order to develop a subclone with morphologic characteristics best suited for transformation assays. It is therefore used for DNA transfection studies.
Cystic fibrosis transmembrane conductance regulator (CFTR) functions as a chloride channel and controls the regulation of other transport pathways. Mutations in the CFTR gene have been found to cause cystic fibrosis (CF) and congenital bilateral aplasia of the vas deferens (CBAVD). The ΔF508CFTR mutation of the CFTR gene was stably transfected into the NIH/3T3 cell line and used for functional studies on QPatch.