Marsupial cells in long-term culture.

Cell lines have been developed from several species of Australian marsupials and studied during long-term growth. Cell lines developed from macropodid skin or heart tissues all had reproducible finite life-spans. However, cell lines developed from dasyurids showed bariable behavior in culture: lines developed from Antechinus stuartii and Dasyurus viverrinus had finite life-spans, while lines developed from Sminthopsis crassicaudata had indefinite life-spans. S. crassicaudata lines usually became heteroplloid, but one was still diploid after 150 population doublings, while another contained a proportion (10%) of haploid cells. Other lines were developed from the peramelid, Perameles nasuta, and the phanlngerid, Trichosurus vulpecula.