Immortalized Human Corneal Endothelial Cells-SV40T

Immortalized Human Corneal Endothelial Cells (HCEnCs) represent a transformative in vitro model system designed to overcome the fundamental bottleneck in corneal endothelial research: the absolute scarcity and non-regenerative nature of primary human tissue in vivo.

The corneal endothelium, a monolayer of hexagonal cells on the inner surface of the cornea, is essential for maintaining corneal transparency through its critical "pump-leak" barrier function, actively regulating stromal hydration via ion transport (primarily Na+/K+-ATPase pumps). Unlike most human cells, these cells are terminally differentiated in vivo with minimal proliferative capacity. Primary HCEnCs obtained from donor tissue are extremely limited in number, exhibit rapid senescence in culture, and lose their defining functional phenotype (e.g., ion pump function, tight junction integrity), making long-term or large-scale studies impractical.

Immortalization strategies, typically involving the introduction of SV40 Large T antigen (SV40LT) and/or the catalytic subunit of human telomerase (hTERT), are employed to confer stable proliferative potential while striving to preserve essential functional characteristics. The paramount advantage of well-characterized immortalized HCEnC lines lies in their provision of a sustainable, genetically uniform, and experimentally tractable human model that faithfully replicates key aspects of native endothelium.