In cell culture are cancerous cells known as transformed cells?

Question

I'm a little confused.

I know that cancerous cells behave differently in cell cultures but am getting confused with whether thay are transformed cells or immortalised cells or neither??

Also is it not possible to subculture cancerous cells as many times as normal cells?

(our study is about cells which overexpress HER2)

Any help at all would be appreciated :)

Answer 1

I am currently culturing the U87 glioblastoma cell line (brain cancer) along with several other types of cancerous cells such as breast and colon.  immortalised cells refer to cells that replicate without bounds.  transformed cells refer to cells whose DNA has either been alterred or is in a state of differential expression brought on by some external stimulus.  

all cells alter their phenotype in vitro.  sometimes the change is so radical as to be the complete opposite as to what you'd find in vivo.  

you can subculture cancer cells many times.  i did it three times this week.  the U87 line i am using has been around for decades.  

Answer 2

It's not uncommon in mammalian tissue culture to refer to cell line derived from cancers as transformed. So in this case, yes the term transformed does refer to the fact that the cells have lost control of the cell cycle. A good example is the He-La cell line, which was derived from a woman with cervical cancer in the early 1950's.

The term transformed also can be used to refer to cells that have taken up exogenous DNA, such as bacteria that have undergone electroporation to take up a plasmid.

An immortalized cell line has the gene for Telomerase activated (telomerase extends the length of telomeres during cell division. Without active telomerase the telomeres become progressively shorter with every division). Many cancerous cell lines have active telomerase.  

Answer 3

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http://answers.yahoo.com/question/index?...

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http://www.pubmedcentral.nih.gov/article...

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http://www.sciencedaily.com/releases/199...

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http://www.healthline.com/galecontent/on...