Characterization of human amniotic epithelial cells transformed with origin-defective SV40 T-antigen gene

This paper describes characteristics of human amniotic epithelial cells (AEC) transfected with a gene of origin-defective simian virus (SV) 40 large T-antigen (pMTIOD). Normal AEC before transfection with pMTIOD exhibited only low proliferative potential under our culture conditions. On the other hand, AEC cells transfected with pMTIOD exhibited greater proliferative potentials. Flow cytometry and immunohistochemistry analyses showed that both the primary and the transfected AEC did not express appreciable levels of class II antigens. However, the expression of class I antigen of the transfected AEC cells was slightly increased. The cells obtained in this experiment have the ability to induce tumors in severely combined immunodeficiency mice. This finding suggests that established AEC line can be used as a tool to investigate possible expression of the desired gene in human AEC and the gene products, however, was not suitable as a gene carrier to the recipient. Further experiments will be required to establish AEC as a transgene carrier for somatic cell gene therapy.