Male Rat Kangaroo Kidney Epithelial Cells (PtK2)

The widely used PtK2 cell line was established from the kidney tissue of an adult male rat kangaroo (Potorous tridactylus), a long-nosed, marsupial that is fairly common in Australia. The epithelial line is positive for the tough, insoluble intermediate filament protein keratin by immunoperoxidase staining, but is negative for reverse transcriptase, indicating the lack of integral retrovirus genomes.