Saturday, October 29, 2011
Hall 1-2 (San Jose Convention Center)
WI38 human fetal lung fibroblast-derived matrices provide a valuable platform for the study of cell-matrix interactions that are critical in development. We investigated the use of WI38 cells that were immortalized with hTERT to study changes in matrix protein constituents and their organization that might occur with transformation. Matrix proteins were assayed with both immunofluorescence and immunoblotting techniques (see (Soucy and Romer, 2009)), in order to analyze protein expression levels and the organization of constituents in the infrastructure of matrices made by hTERT-immortalized cells and their wild type counterparts. Fibronectin, tenascin-C, vitronectin, and collagen VI were examined. We also compared the morphology of the studied cells. Additionally, a difference in mean detachment time was observed in the hTERT-transformed cells as compared with the wild type controls. Wild type cells consistently detached within 3 minutes as compared to an average detachment time of 10 minutes for hTERT cells. These results indicate that the assembly of several major matrix protein constituents is normal in the fibroblast-derived matrices made by hTERT-immortalized cells, and that these cells may serve as a source of physiologic cell-derived matrices that is unaffected by the short term cellular senescence exhibited by primary fibroblasts.
Soucy PA, Romer LH. 2009. Endothelial cell adhesion, signaling, and morphogenesis in fibroblast-derived matrix. Matrix Biol 28:273-283.