Cross-contamination of a UROtsa stock with T24 cells--molecular comparison of different cell lines and stocks.

Background: UROtsa is an authentic, immortalized human urothelial cell line that is used to study the effects of metals and other toxic substances, mostly in the context of bladder cancer carcinogenesis. Unusual properties on the molecular level of a provided UROtsa cell line stock prompted us to verify its identity.

Methods: UROtsa cell line stocks from different sources were tested on several molecular levels and compared with other cell lines.