TESTING THE FUNCTIONAL ROLE OF CHROMOSOME 13 IN THE TRANSFORMATION OF HUMAN BREAST EPITHELIAL CELLS in vitro
             Recent empirical evidence suggests that genomic alterations play a crucial role in breast cancer development. The functionality of genomic alterations is demonstrated by utilizing micro-cell mediated chromosome transfection (MMCT) techniques. According to recent findings, the immortalization and tumorigenesis ability of human breast epithelial cells (HBEC) maybe associated with the microsatellite instability of the human chromosomes 9, 11, 13, and 17. Of these, the only chromosome that has never been analyzed is chromosome 13. The cancerous, Benzo (a) pyrene Harvey-ras Transfected (BP1 T-ras), cells express a multitude of enhanced capabilities, including tumorigenesis in mammalian hosts. Using this information, the investigator utilized BP1 T-ras cells in order to test whether transfecting chromosome 13 into the cancerous cells play a functional role in the disruption of the phenotypic expression of transformation in HBEC. MMCT is employed in inserting the corresponding normal!
             chromosome into the cancerous cells through an hygromycin tagged mouse cell vector. Once the chromosome is inside, it will start to repair their damaged counterpart in a newly found process known as transduction. After this, the newly transfected cells will be selected in hygromycin culturing media and cultured. Currently, the investigator has performed the transfection procedures for the cell lines and after the desired 21-day waiting period, has tabulated secondary colony sizes and efficiencies for the newly transfected cell lines. With these quantitative and qualitative data, it can be seen that there is indeed a very dramatic colony size decrease. With the hypothesis now supported, one can conclude that there is a definite possibility in developing a treatment for pre-existing breast cancer using the human chromosome 13.
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