Immortalization of male genital duct epithelium: an assay system for the cystic fibrosis gene.

The epithelia lining the vas deferens and epididymis are directly involved in the pathology of the autosomal recessive disease cystic fibrosis (CF). We have established culture systems for these epithelial cells. Long-term cell lines have now been generated from these primary epithelial cells by transformation with a plasmid containing an origin-defective simian virus 40 (SV40). Lines have been established from vas deferens and epididymis and both maintain expression of the CF gene.