METHOD FOR IMMORTALIZING CELLS

摘要

PURPOSE: Immortalizing cells are useful as substrates for viral propagation, as contaminant-free sources for recombinant protein production, for recombinant virus production and as cell substrates to support primary cells and improve virus yield during virus propagation. CONSTITUTION: A method for transforming chicken cells comprises the steps of: positioning nucleic acid encoding p53 under the control of a metallothionein promoter in a gene vector capable of directing expression of p53; introducing the gene vector into primary chicken cells; and selecting foci of cells with population doubling times of about 0.6 to about 1.5 population doublings per day, wherein the cells are reverse-transcriptase negative and are non-tumorigenic. A method for propagating virus comprises the steps of: contacting at least one infectious virus particle with a primary cell; growing the primary cells with immortalized chicken cells containing a gene vector expressing p53 under the control of the metallothionein promoter in cell culture; and collecting virus produced from the cell culture.