Cell Immortalisation

Cell immortalisation kits and reagents for renewable, phenotype-preserving cell stocks

Immortalisation converts a primary cell population into a stable, expandable line that keeps dividing well beyond the natural Hayflick limit, and the genetic strategy you choose determines how closely the resulting cells still behave like the original tissue. SV40 Large T antigen and hTERT are the two most-used genetic triggers: SV40 Large T inactivates p53 and pRb to override senescence checkpoints, while hTERT extends telomere length without suppressing tumour suppressors, which can better preserve your differentiated phenotype in epithelial and stromal cells. EBV-based transformation offers a third route, used for example in B-lymphocytes. Lentiviral constructs let you deliver immortalising genes for stable genomic integration, while wild-type EBV virus reagents give you B-cell transformation instead.

Pick by phenotype-preservation.

1. Strategy. hTERT alone for minimal genetic disruption. SV40 large T for more aggressive immortalisation. Combined hTERT-plus-SV40 for hard-to-immortalise cells. HPV E6/E7 for epithelial cells.
2. Reversibility. Inducible Cre-lox systems allow excision of immortalising transgene to recover original phenotype.
3. Delivery. Lentiviral most common. Retroviral and electroporation as alternatives.
4. Cell-type validation. Some cell types have published protocols; others are empirical.
5. Post-immortalisation. Characterise karyotype, marker expression, and key functional phenotypes against parental primary cells. Immortalisation can drift phenotype.

ABM and GeneCopoeia provide immortalisation reagent suites.