I think "normal cell line" is a contradiction in terms - by definition, cell lines divide indefinitely, which is not "normal". That said, I think your choice of cell line as a control depends heavily on the specifics of your experiment and what kind of variable you're trying to control for. In our lab, we've used multiple human and mouse B cell lines, and they all have their individual quirks and oddities. Can you provide some further details on your experiment? For what specifically do you want to use a B cell line? 

Hi Max, thank you for your quick reply. Actually I want to overexpress a potential oncogenic gene in B cells, and to see the cell proliferation or survival changes. If I use a cancer cell line, it might be difficult to see the difference due to the malignant features of cancer cells. What's your opinion?

I would say that a transformed B cell line is probably not the best experimental system for you. If your gene of interest really is an oncogene, then you would risk having its effect masked by whatever is driving transformation in that particular cell line. So, I'll suggest a couple of alternatives: If you have the time and resources, generating a transgenic mouse over-expressing your GOI specifically in B cells would probably yield the most definitive answer. Such experiments have previously been done with various oncogenes by placing the GOI under control of the Igµ heavy chain enhancer (Eµ): 

http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/1924327

http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/?term=Human+chronic+lymphocytic+leukemia+modeled+in+mouse+by+targeted+TCL1

(These are just the two examples that I'm most familiar with, but there are others.)

Another thing to consider would be to use a lentiviral or retroviral system to express the GOI in primary B cells. As a source of B cells for such an experiment, I've had good success enriching B cells from C57BL/6 mouse bone marrow cultured in the presence of recombinant IL-7, following this method: 

http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/20109461

As for retroviral expression of a GOI in cultured mouse B cells, here's one example from Barry Sleckman's lab (check the methods section, this work also used an IL-7 culture-based approach):

http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/?term=RAG-mediated+DNA+double+strand+jj+bednarski

I hope this is at least helpful for you as a starting point! Best of luck!

-Max

Max, thank you for your information! They are very helpful for me!

-Jennifer

Hi Max and Han,

I have a similar question, I am looking for a control human B cell line that I can use for looking at surface expression of CD18/CD11. Do you have any suggestions?

Thanks

Hi Chitra, actually I cannot find an ideal normal B cell line, because most of them are all from viral-transformed permanent cell lines, and I don't think it is a good control. If possible, you can use human primary B cells from healthy donors as a control. Hope it is helpful for you. Thanks!

Jennifer