Description
This experiment was designed to study oncogene-induced senescence (OIS). To this end we generated a series of cell lines derived from normal human diploid fibroblasts IMR90 forced to express the catalytic subunit of telomerase (hTERT). This cells were then subjected to further manipulation by orderly introducing defined genetic elements by retroviral transduction. The first cell line generated was ITV, which was obtained from the original cell line (IMR90 with hTERT) after introducing an empty vector. Subsequently, we introduced Mek:ER, which is a switchable version of the Mek kinase, a relevant downstream effector of Ras signaling during Ras-induced senescence, to generate ITM cells. We further modified this cell line by introducing SV40 small-t antigen (ST), papillomavirus oncoproteins E6 and E7 (E6/E7) or the combination of both (E6/E7 and ST). In this manner, we obtained ITMST, ITME6E7 and ITME6E7ST respectively.