THE H-2K(B)TSA58 TRANSGENIC MOUSE - A NEW TOOL FOR THE RAPID GENERATION OF NOVEL CELL-LINES

The ability to generate expanded populations of individual cell types able to undergo normal differentiation in vitro and in vivo is of crit ical importance in the investigation of the mechanisms that underly di fferentiation and in studies on the use of cell transplantation to rep air damaged tissues. This review discusses the development of a strain of transgenic mice that allows the direct derivation of conditionally immortal cell lines from a variety of tissues, simply by dissociation of the tissue of interest and growth of cells in appropriate conditio ns. In these mice the tsA58 mutant of SV40 large T antigen is controll ed by the interferon-inducible Class I antigen promoter. Cells can be grown for extended periods in vitro simply by growing them at 33 degre es C in the presence of interferon, while still retaining the capacity to undergo normal differentiation in vivo and in vitro. In addition, it appears that cell lines expressing mutant phenotypes can readily be generated by preparing cultures from appropriate offspring of matings between H-2K(b)tsA58 transgenic mice and mutant mice of interest.