Medical Definition of Immortalisation
1.
| The ability of a genetically engineered cell line to reproduce indefinitely
The cells escape from the normal limitation on growth of a finite number of division cycles (the Hayflick limit), by variants in animal cell cultures and cells in some tumours.
Immortalisation in culture may be spontaneous, as happens particularly readily in mouse cells or induced by mutagens or by transfection of certain oncogenes.
This entry appears with permission from the Dictionary of Cell and Molecular Biology
(11 Mar 2008)
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Lexicographical Neighbors of Immortalisation
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