title: Establishment of an Immortalized Skin Keratinocyte Cell Line Derived from the Animal Model Mastomys coucha.
abstract: In the present report we describe the establishment of a spontaneous immortalized skin keratinocyte cell line derived from the skin of the multimammate rodent Mastomys coucha. These animals are used in preclinical studies for a variety of human diseases such as infections with nematodes, bacteria and papillomaviruses, especially regarding cutaneous manifestations such as non-melanoma skin cancer. Here we characterize the cells in terms of their origin and cytogenetic features. Searching for genomic signatures, a spontaneous mutation in the splicing donor sequence of Trp53 (G to A transition at the first position of intron 7) could be detected. This point mutation leads to alternative splicing and to a premature stop codon, resulting in a truncated and, in turn, undetectable form of p53, probably contributing to the process of immortalization. Mastomys coucha-derived skin keratinocytes can be used as an in vitro system to investigate molecular and immunological aspects of infectious agent interactions with their host cells.
authors.affiliation: Division of Viral Transformation Mechanisms (F030), German Cancer Research Center, Heidelberg, Germany.
authors.forename: Daniel
authors.initials: D
authors.lastname: Hasche
authors.affiliation: Division of Viral Transformation Mechanisms (F030), German Cancer Research Center, Heidelberg, Germany.
authors.forename: Sonja
authors.initials: S
authors.lastname: Stephan
authors.affiliation: Division of Neuroblastoma Genomics (B087), German Cancer Research Center, Heidelberg, Germany.
authors.forename: Larissa
authors.initials: L
authors.lastname: Savelyeva
authors.affiliation: Division of Neuroblastoma Genomics (B087), German Cancer Research Center, Heidelberg, Germany.
authors.forename: Frank
authors.initials: F
authors.lastname: Westermann
authors.affiliation: Division of Viral Transformation Mechanisms (F030), German Cancer Research Center, Heidelberg, Germany.
authors.forename: Frank
authors.initials: F
authors.lastname: Rösl
authors.affiliation: Division of Viral Transformation Mechanisms (F030), German Cancer Research Center, Heidelberg, Germany.
authors.forename: Sabrina E
authors.identifier: http://orcid.org/0000-0002-1330-9125
authors.initials: SE
authors.lastname: Vinzón
mesh_terms: D000818:Animals; D001483:Base Sequence; D018929:Cell Culture Techniques / Q000379:methods*; D002460:Cell Line; D004195:Disease Models, Animal; D059785:Karyotype; D015603:Keratinocytes / Q000166:cytology*; D051189:Murinae; D017354:Point Mutation / Q000235:genetics; D020133:Reverse Transcriptase Polymerase Chain Reaction; D016415:Sequence Alignment; D017422:Sequence Analysis, DNA; D012867:Skin / Q000166:cytology*; D016159:Tumor Suppressor Protein p53 / Q000235:genetics*
chemical_list: D016159:Tumor Suppressor Protein p53