Immortalization of Endothelial Cells

Abstract

The past decade has witnessed tremendous progress in the understanding of endothelial cell biology. Specifically acting growth factors and their cognate receptors on endothelial cells have been identified and the analysis of signaling pathways regulating endothelial behavior, growth, differentiation, and morphogenesis has taken center stage.Yet, isolation and maintenance of primary mouse endothelial cells is time-, cost- and labor-intensive and the limited proliferative potential of primary endothelial cultures renders extensive biochemical and cell biological analyses tedious. Frequently observed contamination of endothelial cultures with fibroblasts and pericytes, as well as the fact that primary endothelium is largely resistant to transfection with calcium phosphate or lipid-based methods substantially add to the inconvenience. Permanently growing endothelial cell lines that have been immortalized by the action of dominant oncogenes can provide an elegant solution to these limitations that are hampering the analysis of endothelial cells.