Immortalized kidney epithelial cells as tools for hormonally regulated ion transport studies.

The development of transgenic mice carrying the simian virus-40 large T antigen gene or the temperature-sensitive simian virus-40 large T antigen gene, either alone or placed under the control of the 5'-regulatory regions of tissue-specific or ubiquitous genes, has permitted the production of differentiated, polarized kidney epithelial cells. This review covers the immortalized cell lines issued from the various parts of the renal tubule and, in particular, the recently established collecting duct cell lines that have been used as ex-vivo cell models to analyze the regulation of ion transport processes by hormones.