title: Characterization of an established endothelial cell line from primary cultures of fetal sheep hypothalamus.
abstract: Immortalized cell lines from fetal brain are an experimental model for studying the in vitro molecular pathways regulating neural cell differentiation and the development of neural networks. The procedures are described to obtain an established cell line from the 90-day old fetal sheep hypothalamus. Viral oncogene LT-SV40 transformation was used to isolate a stable cell line (ENOS-01) that was characterized immunocytochemically. Immortalized cells can be classified as an endothelial cell line of hypothalamic microvasculature. Furthermore, mRNA expression and immunocytochemical of estrogen receptors α and β were also evaluated. Since it is known that cerebral vessels are directly targeted by sex steroids, our established cell line represents an alternative system to study estradiol/receptor interactions during brain development. Our in vitro model can provide a tool to investigate the complex relationships among the cell types forming the blood-brain barrier, which is known to be involved in the pathogenesis of sheep transmissible neurological diseases.
authors.affiliation: Department of Comparative Biomedicine and Food Safety, University of Padova, viale dell'Università 16, 35020 Legnaro (PD), Italy. emilio_mura@tiscali.it
authors.forename: E
authors.initials: E
authors.lastname: Mura
authors.forename: M
authors.initials: M
authors.lastname: Suman
authors.forename: S
authors.initials: S
authors.lastname: Montelli
authors.forename: A
authors.initials: A
authors.lastname: Peruffo
authors.forename: B
authors.initials: B
authors.lastname: Cozzi
authors.forename: V
authors.initials: V
authors.lastname: Farina
mesh_terms: D000818:Animals; D002460:Cell Line; D002478:Cells, Cultured; D004730:Endothelium, Vascular / Q000166:cytology* / Q000196:embryology; D007031:Hypothalamus / Q000098:blood supply / Q000166:cytology* / Q000196:embryology; D008297:Male; D016133:Polymerase Chain Reaction / Q000662:veterinary; D012756:Sheep / Q000235:genetics; D013539:Simian virus 40 / Q000235:genetics; D014162:Transfection