The Center for Alternatives to Animal Testing is an academic center affiliated with the Division of Toxicological Sciences in the Department of Environmental Health Sciences of the Johns Hopkins University Bloomberg School of Public Health.

 

Johns Hopkins School of Public Health

Research Grants 1993-1994

Oncogenes in Transgenic Mice: Applications for Generating Novel Immortalized Cell Lines from the Nervous System

Albee Messing, V.MD, PhD
University of Wisconsin-Madison, Madison, Wisconsin

This investigator is exploring two strategies for generating novel cell lines chowing properties of differentiated cells. In the first, he will place a potent transforming gene from SV40 under control of regulatory sequences from a neural specific gene, which will then be introduced into the germ line of mice. The resulting tumors will be used for subsequent derivation of immortalized cell lines. The second strategy combines the same SV40 T antigen gene with regulatory sequences from an interferon-inducible mouse gene. The Mx1-SV40 mice will be used to establish immortalized cell lines in which expression of the oncogene is controlled by levels of interferon in the culture medium. The cell lines produced by these strategies should reduce the need for in vivo models in neurotoxicology and in other types of experimental research.