Marek's disease virus-transformed chicken T-cell lines respond to lymphokines

Current assays for chicken interleukin-2 (IL-2) utilize mitogen-activated lymphocytes. However, very high inter-assay variability and sporadic high background proliferation limit their usefulness. In view of the above, several Marek's disease virus (MDV)-transformed T-cell lines (which grow well in a serum-supplemented medium) were tested for a response to chicken IL-2 when grown in serum-free media. Five of six lines examined showed a dose-dependent proliferative response to chicken T-cell conditioned media. One line, MDCC-CU14, was chosen for further studies. In addition to the tumor cells' dose-dependent responses to semi-purified chicken IL-2, they expressed T-cell activation antigens on the cell surface. Furthermore, the level of surface expression was enhanced on cells provided IL-2. Co-incubation of the tumor cells with monoclonal antibody INN-CH-16 (specific for an antigen on the surface of activated T-cells) and IL-2 resulted in a modulation of lymphokine-induced proliferation. Together, these data suggest that signalling mechanisms in MDV T-cell tumors are intact and that these lines can be used as an assay for chicken T-cell lymphokines. Furthermore, they provide an interesting model for the study of avian and mammalian T-cell transformation. Implications for the study of Marek's disease are also discussed.