One source that is used extensively to study genetic influences on expression [10-12] or to investigate host responses to pathogens [5] is LCLs. The substantial advantage of LCLs over whole blood is that the impact of environmental influences or other cell types on expression is much reduced, allowing - in theory - a more powerful investigation of genetic influences. However, LCLs are transformed and cultured under artificial conditions and may not represent the natural gene expression state in vivo due to a large percentage of pauciclonality combined with widespread monoallelic expression [13,14].
