Friday, 09 March 2018 14:57

HZI: Immortabilized primary cells show all important properties Featured

Researchers from the Helmholtz Centre for Infection Research in Braunschweig (HZI) together with the InSCREENeX GmbH have developed a universal method with which they can proliferate cells of any donor tissue while maintaining their function. The study has been published in Nature Communications.


In a collaboration study between HZI and InSCREENeX GmbH, a spin-off of HZI, scientists have developed a completely new technology that enables them to reproduce cells from practically any tissue in the petri dish simply and reliably while preserving their tissue-typical characteristics.

Primary cells have to be immortalized in the cell culture for them to let them proliferate permanently. As a rule, this is only possible at the expense of quality: within a few days, like many of its original properties have been lost and therefore new cells have always to be regained. Researchers have selected 33 genes responsible for cell cycle progression, apoptosis, stem cell maintenance or immortalization. These genes were inserted in specific combinations into commercially acquired primary cells depending on the cells` type via a lentiviral vector. The primary cells derived from different human tissues (human cartilage cells, connective tissue cells of the skin, lymphatic endothelial cells, bone marrow cells, etc.), as well as different donors and species. Analyses have shown that the cells obtained in this way were phenotypically stable and showed the desired functions.

The use of this technology enables the rapid, efficient and reliable production of an unlimited amount of personalized cells for the production of cell systems for mechanistic studies, epidemiological research and customized drug development.
 
The scientists published their results in Nature Communications:
Lipps, C., Klein, F., F., Wahlicht, T., Seiffert, V., Butueva, M., Zauers, J., Truschel, T., Luckner, M., Koester, M., MacLeod, R., Petzold, J., Huehn, J., J., Yuan, Q., Müller, P. P., Kempf, H., Zweigerdt, R., Dittrich-Breiholz, O., Pufe, T., Beckmann, R., Drescher, W., Riancho, J., Sañudo, C., Korff, T., Opalka, B., Rebmann, V., Göthert, J. R., Alves, P. M., Ott, M., Schucht, R., Hauser, H., Wirth, D. and May, T. (2018): Expansion of functional, personalized cells with specific transgenic combinations. Nature Communications, DOI: 10.1038/s41467-018-03408-4