Fibroblasts in Huntington's Disease

To the Editor. —I read with interest the article by Archer and Mancall 1 in theArchives. The authors claim that their results are a duplication and extension of cell attachment and hexosamine studies reported by us. 2-4 In fact, they merely subjected our hypothesis to statistical analysis. The view that the only variable in their study was the number of cell lines is misleading and incorrect. A wide range of variables were introduced by the authors, including those in procedure, type, and use of fetal calf serum; the plastic surface to which the cells were attached; and the use of maintenance (nongrowing) cell populations to test cell attachment and nutritional response. The authors claim to have tested 20 cell lines from each genotype for their results. However, only five cell lines were used for attachment studies (their Fig 2), and eight and six cell lines were used for growth