Immortalization techniques

Akahori, Akira. "Drug taking and immortality." In Taoist meditation and longevity techniques, eds. Livia Kohn and Yoshinobu Sakade, 73-98. Ann Arbor (MI) Center for Chinese Studies, The University of Michigan, 1989. 

Daoism, as the primary indigenous religion of China, is a highly esoteric tradition. Constructed of many different strands, over several thousand years, Daoism has a complex history of integrating various techniques of meditation, spirit communication, consciousness projection, bodily movements, medicine, and "internal alchemy" with a profound transpersonal philosophy of nature and a metaphysics of human relationships based on an ideal of spiritual transformation leading to immortality... 

Hybridoma Cell produced by the fusion of antibody-producing plasma cells with myeloma/carcinoma cells. The resultant hybrids have then the capacity to produce antibody (as determined by the properties of the plasma cells), and can be grown in continuous culture indefinitely owing to the immortality of the myeloma fusion partner. This technique enabled the first continuous supply of monoclonal antibodies to be produced. 

The next development was the production of monoclonal antibodies (MAbs) in the mid-1970s. This uses hybridoma technology, which involves the fusion of antibody-producing B cells to immortal myeloma cells. Figure 4.4 shows the preparation of MAbs using hybridoma techniques. A more detailed discussion of biopharmaceuticals production is presented in Section 10.5. 

Numerous modifications of in vitro culture systems have been developed for the estimation of BBB transfer [52]. Culture systems in use are either primary cultures of brain microvessel endothelial cells (BMEC) or immortalized endothelial cell hues. BMEC may be grown in co-culture with astrocytes or in astrocyte-conditioned medium. Astrocyte-derived factors increase the tightness of the barrier as measured by transendothelial electrical resistance (TEER) and by the permeability of hydrophUic markers such as sucrose. They also up-regulate the expression of BBB-enriched enzymes such as y-glutamyl transpeptidase (y-GTP) and alkaline phosphatase. A setup of the in vitro technique in a transwell system for transport studies is depicted in Figure 2.5. 

According to Aristotle, it was theoretically possible to transform any substance to another substance simply by altering the relative proportions of the four basic qualities. This meant that, under the proper conditions, a metal like lead could be transformed to gold. This concept laid the foundation of alchemy, a field of study concerned primarily with finding potions that would produce gold or confer immortality. Alchemists from the time of Aristotle to as late as the 1600s tried in vain to convert various metals to gold. Despite the futility of their efforts, the alchemists learned much about the behavior of many chemicals, and many useful laboratory techniques were developed. 

In my present circumstances, I had even more problems. The Maestro might have called on demonic aid for his escape from Ca Barbolano he knows the names of many fiends more potent than Putrid. I hoped he had used some other sorcerous technique, one that did not risk his immortal soul, for he has many arts that he has not yet shared with me. 

Many examples of immortalization methodologies and techniques to obtain continuous cell lines are described in the literature (Land et al., 1983 ... 

McLean, J.S. (1993). Improved techniques for immortalizing animal cells. Trends Biotech. 11,232-238. 

Some cells, such as hepatocytes, must be used in primary culture since they will not divide in culture and are relatively short-lived, while other cell lines are capable of division and can, in suitable media, be maintained indefinitely. In other cases, cells have been immortalized by fusion with tumor cells and thereafter retain the ability to divide in culture while, at the same time, maintaining many of the properties of the original nontumor cells. All of the various approaches to the use of cultured cells in biochemical and molecular toxicology are summarized in Chapter 8. The relatively recent union of the techniques of cell and molecular biology has been enormously productive for experimental toxicology since cells can be used for the expression of genetic constructs, reproduction of recombinant enzymes, and so on. 

Since Harrison, in 1907, first microscopically observed neurite outgrowth from cultured frog neurons, many have experienced the powerful persuasion of direct visualization of cellular responses in culture. Standardization of media composition, introduction of antibiotics, and development of cryopreservation techniques and immortalized cell lines in the 1950s enabled routine application of cell culture in the biological research laboratory. Utilization of cell culture in toxicology soon followed with development of systems for monitoring chemically induced mammalian genotoxicity. 

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