MYOGENIC CELL-LINES DERIVED FROM TRANSGENIC MICE CARRYING A THERMOLABILE T-ANTIGEN - A MODEL SYSTEM FOR THE DERIVATION OF TISSUE-SPECIFIC AND MUTATION-SPECIFIC CELL-LINES

Skeletal myoblasts cloned from limb muscles of H-2K(b) tsA58 transgeni c mice remained proliferative through at least 80 generations under co nditions permissive for expression and function of the tsA58 gene prod uct. When switched to nonpermissive conditions or implanted into muscl es of nude mdx mice they underwent differentiation but, in one clonal cell line, a small proportion appeared to become quiescent muscle prec ursors in vivo. H-2K(b)-tsA58 X mdx/mdx F1 male mice yielded dystrophi n-deficient myoblasts. By such simple genetic crosses, H-2K(b)-tsA58 t ransgenic mice provide a valuable tool for the rapid isolation of cell lines, myogenic or otherwise, bearing mutations of interest. (C) 1994 Academic Press, Inc.