Cell Immortalization: How to Immortalize Cells

Don't let your cells die before the end of your project! In this video, learn how to develop an immortalized cell line from primary cells.

Read our blog post for more information on cell line immortalization:

Timestamps for topics covered in this video:
[0:29] What are immortalized cells?
[1:19] How do you generate immortalized cells?
[3:47] Cell line quality control considerations

You’re probably used to using cells that are taken directly from living tissue, called primary cells. The difficulty with primary cells is that their telomeres shorten after every cell division, causing the cells to enter senescence and stop dividing after only a few cell cycles. This means that if you are working on a long term project, you’ll frequently need to keep harvesting and re-establishing new batches of primary cells. In addition, every batch of cells is different due to different harvesting conditions, making reproducibility a headache!

Immortalized cells (also called continuous cells or cell lines) are primary cells whose telomeres and/or tumour suppressor genes have been altered. Tumour suppressor genes (e.g. p53 and Rb) are important for signalling the cell to stop dividing when the likelihood of DNA damage is higher (i.e. after multiple cell cycles). In the case of immortalized cells, these genes have been knocked down or their function inhibited so that the cell is able to keep dividing indefinitely.

In this video, we will cover two major cell immortalization strategies: (1) Telomerase Reverse Transcriptase protein (TERT) expression, and (2) viral oncogenes. We will also introduce you to two immortalization methods (lentiviral transduction and plasmid transfection).

Connect with us on our social media pages to stay up to date with the latest scientific discoveries:

[amanpadamsey]

I am a master's student and your videos have been super helpful. Will be sharing with all of my peers. Keep up the good work!

[goddesslena]

this is nice. reminds me of henrietta lacks.

[aljenembtry]

I'm building my own genetics lab at home!!! Some fee lab stuff will always help!!!! Just bought 4 Nest 5-Layer Cell Culture Flask, Vent Cap Straight Neck

[omerabdelbagi]

Thanks very much for is valuable vedio. Could you please explain to me how can I obtain NRK-52E cell from rat directly to culture media

[d.sellermusiclife]

i'm wondering about exist of continuous genotype cell lines that also be immortalized

[puspitasaha]

While checking the hTERT expression in immortalized cells by qPCR, do I need a control lentiviral vector without hTERT gene expression? Please reply. Thanks.

[PatBythrow]

I made cell immortalization part of my morning routine and was able to cut my coffee consumption almost in half!

[BJCottonSwab]

Even if you silence the tumor suppressor genes, wouldn't the finite length of the telomeres still limit the immortalization if you use only that method?

[aljenembtry]

Can't wait for them to get here!!!

[scottyryan]

Could this keep cells from dying inside the human body?

[ابومحمدالزاوي-تو]

Hi, thank you very much for this video and others. Do you have any idea about neonatal intestinal epithelial cell line, is it immortalized or not and which method has been used for this cell to continue proliferate?. Best and good luck. Mahmoud Agena.

[dureshahwar]

For lentiviral which viruses are used?

[christineking]

I would like to volunteer to try immortality process. I’m serious I’m not messing around. I’m real desperate. Please reply if you got my message.

[chucks]

Would you be able to immortalise every cell in the human body and therefore become immortal

[cherrymarriedindiscord]

I was talking about proteins and genes related to immortalisation once to my family, I forgot their name so I said 'probably called TER56' 😂😂😂😂 damn I mixed them and I was wondering which one I forgot

[voila]

Hello and thank you for your very educational explanations.
I discovered your video following this one, on Henrietta Lacks' immortal cells.
So I was wondering : since it seems that scientists already have access to "ready-to-use" immortal cells, in what case is your way of immortalizing cells more interesting than using HELA cells ?
Especially as I've discovered before that the hybridomas, which involve fusing antibodies to cancer cells also to create an immortal cell line (capable of producing the useful monoclonal antibody).
So, here again, I wondered : isn't it possible to do this with all the cell types you want to immortalize ?
And if so, in which cases would you prefer your technique to this one ?

I'm new to the subject, so my questions are probably clumsy, but it piqued my curiosity, so I'm going for it.
Thanks again for your work.

PS : Also, wouldn't it also be possible to use tumor organoids ?