Chicken cells--oncogene transformation, immortalization and more.

Domestic chicken as a laboratory animal as well as chicken cells in vitro have been highly evaluated in several fields of experimental biology. Retrovirology and experimental oncology traditionally use this model, whose comparative aspects are still inspirative. The first (retro)viral aetiology of a tumour was recognized in the chicken and the first quantitative in vitro measurement of oncogenic transformation was developed using the chicken cells. Chicken cells (like human and primate, but unlike rodent cells) have a long primary life-span, during which they remain genetically stable. While this property is advantageous for several types of experiments, it correlates with a low propensity of the chicken cells to immortalization. Recent establishment of several continuous chicken cell lines, however, has surmounted this drawback. Furthermore, the chicken B cell line DT40 was proved to be extremely useful for gene disruption studies because of a high frequency of gene targeting not found in any vertebrate cells. In the present communication, we have tried to review several traditional achievements accomplished using the chicken model and point to newly opened areas, where chicken cells appear to be an efficient tool, particularly in cell transformation and immortalization.