[Nescafe]

can anyone explain to me how they grow cancer cells? Many times I read cells were "transformed" or "normal cells" v.s. "cancer cells", "in cell in which cancer was induced".. How do they do it, do they introduce a cancerous element to the plasmid which they express in vitro?


 --> Confused face

Nescafe.

[haloform]

Can you become more specific ? The plasmids, you mentioned, are only used to transfer DNA in Prokaryotes, concerning the almost typical method for recombinant DNA. As far as I know the majority of cancer types include;

-Mutations of a proto-oncogene to oncogene
-Misfunctions on genes controlling the duration of the cell cycle
-Problems regarding DNA repair mechanisms/enzymes

[Nescafe]

Can you become more specific ? The plasmids, you mentioned, are only used to transfer DNA in Prokaryotes, concerning the almost typical method for recombinant DNA. As far as I know the majority of cancer types include;

-Mutations of a proto-oncogene to oncogene
-Misfunctions on genes controlling the duration of the cell cycle
-Problems regarding DNA repair mechanisms/enzymes

Well what you are saying makes sense. But how do they actually trigger such transformations. Let say you are growing a cell culture and you look at your cell culture and you've got 2000 currently normal cells. Then you decide you want to make them all cancerous. I guess you could use any of the three points to trigger them in such a way to make them cancerous? Could you look at their phenotype (microscopically) and confirm that they are now cancerous?

[Yggdrasil]

You can buy kits to turn cell into cancer cells (for example, see http://www.atcc.org/CulturesandProducts/CellBiology/hTERTImmortalizedCellLines/CellImmortalizationProducts/tabid/582/Default.aspx).  The process works by inserting DNA into the cell that will produce proteins that allow the cell to divide indefinitely.  One such strategy involves the enzyme telomerase, which counteracts the "erosion" of DNA ends that occurs during DNA replication, enabling cells to divide indefinitely.  Other strategies use viral genes that act as oncogenes (to stimulate cell division) or that inactivate tumor suppressor genes.

You may find it useful to read the FAQ at the ATCC site:
http://www.atcc.org/CulturesandProducts/CellBiology/hTERTImmortalizedCellLines/hTERTImmortalizedCellsFAQs/tabid/659/Default.aspx