The Immortal Life of Cell Line HMEC-1

Vascular endothelial cells line the inside of blood vessel walls throughout the circulatory system, forming an interface between flowing blood and the vessel wall. They are critical in processes such as inflammation, wound healing, new vessel formation, tumor metastases, and clotting. Despite their importance, however, research on endothelial cells has been limited due to difficulties in isolating and growing these cells, as well as to their limited life span.

Dr. Thomas Lawley, a specialist in dermatology and dermatological immunity and former dean of Emory’s medical school, and his team, including members from Emory and the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC), have made such research considerably easier with the creation of the first immortalized human microvasculature endothelial cell line.

These cells, known as Human Microvascular Endothelial Cell Line-1 (HMEC-1), are derived from human foreskin and have great potential for endothelial cell research and drug development. The cells are easier to grow, heartier, and longer lived by adding a viral gene (in this case, from simian virus 40). All of these characteristics make the line highly valuable to researchers by enabling researchers to run experiments with a greater number of trials and produce larger amounts of data.

The research into the production of HMEC-1 started in 1990 at Emory. Before the new cell line, endothelial cells isolated from human foreskins were used for various forms of cancer and viral research, but lasted only about five to six generations. The HMEC-1 transfected cells lasts from 25 to 27 generations, allowing experimentation with genetically identical cells over the course of many generations.

“HMEC-1 is the first immortalized human microvascular endothelial cell line that retains the morphologic, phenotypic, and functional characteristics of normal human microvascular endothelial cells,” says Lawley.

The HMEC-1 cell line is now used for a wide range of applications in biomedical research, from investigations into the vascular changes created by diseases like diabetes to the distribution of pathogens in the endothelium For example, the cell line is often used during drug screenings for anti-angiogenesis drugs, research into burn/wound healing, and adhesion. There is hope that future research using the line will lead to the ability to slow or stop tumor growth by inhibiting blood vessel formation in vessels that feed the tumors.

HMEC-1 received the FCC award from the Federal Lab Consortium, and the primary paper for the invention has produced over 800 citations. Large pharmaceutical companies such as Pfizer, Eli Lilly, and Bristol-Meyers Squib continue to license this cell line; about 30 pharmaceutical firms and approximately 600 to 700 labs around the world use HMEC-1 in their research.