Effects of basic fibroblast growth factor and gamma interferon on hippocampal progenitor cells derived from the H-2Kb-tsA58 transgenic mouse.

Many workers have immortalised neural precursor cells by applying a variety of techniques including transfection and retroviral-mediated gene insertion using a variety of oncogenes including c-myc, neu, and the SV40 T antigen. This study made use of a conditionally immortalised hippocampal cell population derived from the H-2Kb-tsA58 transgenic mouse. In this mouse the tsA58 gene is under the control of the H-2Kb major histocompatibility complex class I promoter. Enabling the mouse to possess an established integrated copy of the early region of the large tumour antigen (TAg) gene from the temperature sensitive simian virus 40 (SV40) mutant strain tsA58. The H-2Kb promoter used in this insert allows expression in many tissues with an up-regulation of its effect produced on the addition of interferon, which assists cellular proliferation. The temperature sensitive gene allows immortality to be controlled at the permissive temperature of 33 degrees C, the non-permissive temperature being 39.5 degrees C4.