Immortalization of human bronchial epithelial cells in the absence of viral oncoproteins

Ruben D. Ramirez, Shelley Sheridan, Luc Girard, Mitsuo Sato, Young Kim, Jon Pollack, Michael Peyton, Ying Zou, Jonathan M. Kurie, J. Michael DiMaio, Sara Milchgrub, Alice L. Smith, Rhonda F. Souza, Laura Gilbey, Xi Zhang, Kenia Gandia, Melville B. Vaughan, Woodring E. Wright, Adi F. Gazdar, Jerry W. ShayJohn D. Minna

Research output: Contribution to journalArticlepeer-review

441 Scopus citations

Abstract

By expressing two genes (hTERT and Cdk4), we have developed a method to reproducibly generate continuously replicating human bronchial epithelial cell (HBEC) lines that provide a novel resource to study the molecular pathogenesis of lung cancer and the differentiation of bronchial epithelial cells. Twelve human bronchial epithelial biopsy specimens obtained from persons with and without lung cancer were placed into short-term culture and serially transfected with retroviral constructs containing cyclin-dependent kinase (Cdk) 4 and human telomerase reverse transcriptase (hTERT), resulting in continuously growing cultures. The order of introduction of Cdk4 and hTERT did not appear to be important; however, transfection of either gene alone did not result in immortalization. Although they could be cloned, the immortalized bronchial cells did not form colonies in soft agar or tumors in nude mice. The immortalized HBECs have epithelial morphology; express epithelial markers cytokeratins 7, 14, 17, and 19, the stem cell marker p63, and high levels of p16INK4a; and have an intact p53 checkpoint pathway. Cytogenetic analysis and array comparative genomic hybridization profiling show immortalized HBECs to have duplication of parts of chromosomes 5 and 20. Microarray gene expression profiling demonstrates that the Cdk4/hTERT-immortalized bronchial cell lines clustered together and with nonimmortalized bronchial cells, distinct from lung cancer cell lines. We also immortalized several parental cultures with viral oncoproteins human papilloma virus type 16 E6/E7 with and without hTERT, and these cells exhibited loss of the p53 checkpoint and significantly different gene expression profiles compared with Cdk4/hTERT-immortalized HBECs. These HBEC lines are a valuable new tool for studying of the pathogenesis of lung cancer.

Original languageEnglish (US)
Pages (from-to)9027-9034
Number of pages8
JournalCancer Research
Volume64
Issue number24
DOIs
StatePublished - Dec 15 2004
Externally publishedYes

ASJC Scopus subject areas

  • Oncology
  • Cancer Research

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