Conditionally immortalized cell lines with differentiated functions established from temperature-sensitive T-antigen transgenic mice.

A variety of cell lines with differentiated functions are required to study tissue functions at cellular and molecular levels. Using transgenic mice harbouring ubiquitously expressing the temperature-sensitive T-antigen (ts T-antigen) gene of simian virus 40 (SV40), many cell lines were generated. The properties of these established lines suggested that their growth was dependent on T-antigen, and that they retained some of the differentiated functions of each particular tissue. A possible use of these cell lines for tissue functions in vitro is discussed.