Cerebellar cell lines established from a p53-deficient adult mouse

p53-Deficient mice are prone to develop spontaneous tumors [L.A. Donehower, M. Harvey, B.L. Slagle, M.J. McArthur, C.A. Montgomery Jr. , J.S. Butel, A. Bradley, Mice deficient for p53 are developmentally normal but susceptible to spontaneous tumors, Nature 356 (1992) 215-221], but brain neoplasms are rare and difficult to culture in vitro. Here we describe cloning and long-term culture of heterogeneous neural cell lines from a multifocal cerebellar neoplasm that arose in an adult p53-/- mutant mouse. These lines may be useful for studies of neoplastic transformation and cell lineage in cerebellar development.