They were established from the kidney epithelial cells extracted from a normal adult African Green monkey.
Vero cells are a lineage of cells used in cell cultures and are susceptible to a wide range of viruses including polio, rubella, arboviruses and reoviruses.
The lineage was developed on March 27, 1962, by Yasumura and Kawakita at the Chiba University in Chiba, Japan.
The original cell line was named “Vero” after an abbreviation of “Verda Reno”, which means “green kidney” in Esperanto, while “vero” itself means “truth” also in Esperanto.
In 1963, USA authorities decided to switch to African green monkeys to produce polio vaccine.
Several vaccines currently available in the United States were developed using animal cell strains, primarily using cells from African green monkeys.
These include vaccines against Japanese encephalitis, polio, rotavirus and smallpox.
