Efficient Immortalization by SV40 T DNA of Skin Fibroblasts From Patients With Wilms' Tumor Associated With Chromosome 11p Deletion

Abstract

We report that transfection with a plasmid containing the SV40 early region (T) leads to a very high frequency of immortalization in two different strains of human diploid fibroblasts, each with a partial deletion of the short arm of chromosome 11. Immortalization often occurred without a recognizable “crisis” phase. Preimmortal cells showed a high frequency of spontaneous mutations and chromosomal aberrations. These results suggest that a gene involved in the control of senescence of human cells in vitro may be associated with this chromosome.