DIFFERENTIATION OF RAT LENS EPITHELIAL CELLS IN TISSUE CULTURE (III) FUNCTIONS IN VITRO OF A TRANSFORMED RAT LENS...

Epithelial cells isolated from one-day-old rat lens were neoplastically transformed using Rous Sarcoma Virus (Schmidt-Ruppin-D strain) and have been in continuous culture for over 30 months. This cell line displays some of the characteristics of lens epithelial cells, but can be shown to represent a permanent cell line in that it has been transferred more than 50 times and is continuing to grow, while primary lens cell cultures have never survived beyond 8 weeks. The infecting viral genome can be rescued from the cell line upon fusion with uninfected chick embryo cells. It is anticipated that this newly established cell line, designated RLE-R, will be useful in studies on cellular differentiation.