On 2014 Sep 01, Amanda Capes-Davis commented:

The authors describe KB as an epidermoid cell line. Although this term is widely used, it is not accurate for this cell line. KB is known to be cross-contaminated with HeLa and thus is a cervical adenocarcinoma cell line. It is not an oral squamous cell carcinoma (epidermoid carcinoma) as was originally thought.

KB is a widely used model for multidrug resistance. To help scientists who might use KB for other applications, it would be helpful if authors can refer to KB as a HeLa derivative, and to avoid the terms epidermoid, squamous cell carcinoma, or oral.

I note that the authors performed authentication testing. The information above would help readers to make sense of their test results. For a list of known cross-contaminated cell lines, see http://iclac.org/databases/cross-contaminations/.

On 2014 Sep 01, Amanda Capes-Davis commented:

The authors describe KB as an epidermoid cell line. Although this term is widely used, it is not accurate for this cell line. KB is known to be cross-contaminated with HeLa and thus is a cervical adenocarcinoma cell line. It is not an oral squamous cell carcinoma (epidermoid carcinoma) as was originally thought.

KB is a widely used model for multidrug resistance. To help scientists who might use KB for other applications, it would be helpful if authors can refer to KB as a HeLa derivative, and to avoid the terms epidermoid, squamous cell carcinoma, or oral.

I note that the authors performed authentication testing. The information above would help readers to make sense of their test results. For a list of known cross-contaminated cell lines, see http://iclac.org/databases/cross-contaminations/.