Lifetime extension of humpback whale skin fibroblasts and their response to lipopolysaccharide (LPS) and a mixture of polychlorinated biphenyls (Aroclor).

ABSTRACT: Marine mammals, such as whales, have a high proportion of body fat and so are susceptible to the accumulation, and associated detrimental health effects, of lipophilic environmental contaminants. Recently, we developed a wild-type cell line from humpback whale fibroblasts (HuWa). Extensive molecular assessments with mammalian wild-type cells are typically constrained by a finite life span, with cells eventually becoming senescent. Thus, the present work explored the possibility of preventing senescence in the HuWa cell line by transfection with plasmids encoding the simian virus large T antigen (SV40T) or telomerase reverse transcriptase (TERT). No stable expression was achieved upon SV40 transfection. Transfection with TERT, on the other hand, activated the expression of telomerase in HuW

SUBMITTER: Burkard M 

PROVIDER: S-EPMC6757015 | biostudies-literature | 2019 Aug

REPOSITORIES: biostudies-literature