IMMORTALIZATION OF 4 NEW FANCONI-ANEMIA FIBROBLAST CELL-LINES BY AN IMPROVED PROCEDURE

Fanconi anemia (FA) is an autosomal recessive disease characterized by birth defects, progressive bone marrow failure and increased risk for Leukemia. FA cells display chromosome breakage and increased cell kil ling in response to DNA crosslinking agents. At least 5 genes have bee n defined by cell complementation studies, but only one of these, FAC has been cloned to date. Efforts to map and isolate new FA genes by fu nctional complementation have been hampered by the lack of immortalize d FA fibroblast cell lines. Here we report the use of a novel immortal ization strategy to create 4 new immortalized FA fibroblast lines, inc luding one from the rare complementation group D.