title: Establishment of Schwann cell lines by oncogene transfer.
abstract: Schwann cell cultures prepared from murine sciatic nerves (MuSN), rat sciatic nerves (RSN) and murine dorsal root ganglia (MuDRG) were transformed by the introduction of oncogenes (v-arc, c-Ha-ras, and v-mos). The transformation was carried out by infection with helper-free retroviruses containing the oncogene and the neomycin-resistant gene which were produced in psi-2 cells. After G418 selection and cloning of cells showing spindle shape morphology, six different transformed cell clones, i.e., MuSN-arc, MuDRG-arc, MuDRG-ras, MuDRG-mos, RSN-arc, and RSN-mos, were established. All of the clones were labeled with antibodies to the S-100 protein and the laminin, which are specific markers for Schwann cells. Fibronectin and vimentin were not detected in these cell clones, in contrast to fibroblasts as 3T3 and Rat-2. These cell clones have been maintained with characteristics of Schwann cells for over 18 months. When RSN-mos, one of the Schwann cell clones, and rat retinas were cocultured direct cellular interaction was demonstrated. Furthermore, by the addition of conditioned medium of the RSN-mos, a prominent activity promoting neurite outgrowth in PC12 pheochromocytoma cells was observed.
authors.affiliation: Department of Immunology and Microbiology, Meiji College of Oriental Medicine, Hiyoshi-cho, Kyoto, Japan 629-03.
authors.forename: T
authors.initials: T
authors.lastname: Amagai
authors.forename: S
authors.initials: S
authors.lastname: Hitomi
authors.forename: Y
authors.initials: Y
authors.lastname: Sakai
authors.forename: S
authors.initials: S
authors.lastname: Komatsubara-Takagi
authors.forename: C
authors.initials: C
authors.lastname: Stocking
authors.forename: W
authors.initials: W
authors.lastname: Ostertag