2.7.1. Cell Culture

The human keratinocyte (HaCat), normal African green monkey kidney (Vero), human liver carcinoma (HepG2) and cervical cancer (HeLa) cell lines were purchased from Separation Scientific SA (Pty) Ltd. (Johannesburg, South Africa). The human epidermoid carcinoma (A431) cell line was purchased from Sigma-Aldrich (Pty) Ltd. (Johannesburg, South Africa). The pigmented human malignant melanoma cell line (UCT-MEL-1) was originally isolated from the metastatic lymph nodes of a patient from Groote Schuur Hospital, Cape Town, South Africa and was donated by Prof. Lester Davids (University of Cape Town). The human keratinocyte (HaCat), human epidermoid carcinoma (A431: ATCC CRL-1555) cell lines were maintained in culture flasks containing DMEM, while the normal African green monkey kidney (Vero: ATCC CCL-81), human liver carcinoma (HepG2: ATCC HB-8065), and human cervical cancer (HeLa: ATCC CCL-2) cell lines were maintained in Eagle's Minimal Essential Medium (EMEM) as previously described [23]. Both media were supplemented with 1% antibiotics (100 U/mL penicillin, 100 μg/mL streptomycin and 250 μg/mL fungizone) and 10% heat-inactivated fetal bovine serum (FBS). The cells were cultured to 80% confluency in a humidified incubator set at 5% CO2 and 37 ◦C and sub cultured. Detachment was achieved through treatment with trypsin-EDTA (0.25% trypsin containing 0.01% EDTA) for 10 min followed by the addition of supplemented media to inhibit the reaction.
