title: One-step immortalization of primary human airway epithelial cells capable of oncogenic transformation.
abstract: BACKGROUND
  The ability to transform normal human cells into cancer cells with the introduction of defined genetic alterations is a valuable method for understanding the mechanisms of oncogenesis. Easy establishment of immortalized but non-transformed human cells from various tissues would facilitate these genetic analyses.
  
  
  RESULTS
  We report here a simple, one-step immortalization method that involves retroviral vector mediated co-expression of the human telomerase protein and a shRNA targeting theCDKN2Agene locus. We demonstrate that this method could successfully immortalize human small airway epithelial cells while maintaining their chromosomal stability. We further showed that these cells retain p53 activity and can be transformed by theKRASoncogene.
  
  
  CONCLUSIONS
  Our method simplifies the immortalization process and is broadly applicable for establishing immortalized epithelial cell lines from primary human tissues for cancer research.
authors.affiliation: Laboratory of Cancer Biology and Genetics, Center for Cancer Research, National Cancer Institute, NIH., Bethesda, MD USA.|University of Massachusetts Medical School and the Graduate School of Biomedical Sciences, Worcester, MA USA.
authors.forename: Jordan L
authors.initials: JL
authors.lastname: Smith
authors.affiliation: Laboratory of Cancer Biology and Genetics, Center for Cancer Research, National Cancer Institute, NIH., Bethesda, MD USA.|Graduate Program, Cambridge University, Cambridge, UK.
authors.forename: Liam C
authors.initials: LC
authors.lastname: Lee
authors.affiliation: Laboratory of Cancer Biology and Genetics, Center for Cancer Research, National Cancer Institute, NIH., Bethesda, MD USA.
authors.forename: Abigail
authors.initials: A
authors.lastname: Read
authors.affiliation: Laboratory of Cancer Biology and Genetics, Center for Cancer Research, National Cancer Institute, NIH., Bethesda, MD USA.|ShanghaiTech University, Shanghai, China.
authors.forename: Qiuning
authors.initials: Q
authors.lastname: Li
authors.affiliation: Laboratory of Cancer Biology and Genetics, Center for Cancer Research, National Cancer Institute, NIH., Bethesda, MD USA.|Janssen R&D Shanghai Discovery Center, Shanghai, China.
authors.forename: Bing
authors.initials: B
authors.lastname: Yu
authors.affiliation: Laboratory of Cancer Biology and Genetics, Center for Cancer Research, National Cancer Institute, NIH., Bethesda, MD USA.
authors.forename: Chih-Shia
authors.initials: CS
authors.lastname: Lee
authors.affiliation: Laboratory of Cancer Biology and Genetics, Center for Cancer Research, National Cancer Institute, NIH., Bethesda, MD USA.
authors.forename: Ji
authors.identifier: 0000-0001-5063-1626
authors.initials: J
authors.lastname: Luo