Hair follicle dermal papilla cell lines from p53-knockout mice

We have attempted to establish a cell line from hair follicle dermal papillae microdissected from vibrissa of mice lacking p53 tumor suppressor gene. The hair follicle dermal papillae were obtained from three types of mice: null knockout, hetero-knockout and wild type litters. Continuous cell lines with short doubling time were obtained only from null knockout litter-mates. Dermal papilla cells from either the hetero-knockout or wild type mice did not multiply well, and died within three passages; provided, however, that in only three cases out of 40 primary dermal papilla implants from two hetero-knockout mice, the cell culture reached 29 passages with a much slower growth rate than the cell lines from the null-knockout mice. These data are in accordance with the notion that the loss of p53 function is closely related to perpetuation of cell cycles and or immortalization.