Establishment and characterization of a chicken mononuclear cell line

A new chicken mononuclear cell line (MQ-NCSU) has been established. The starting material used to initiate this cell line was a transformed spleen from a female Dekalb XL chicken which had been experimentally challenged with the JM/102W strain of the Marek's disease virus. After homogenization, a single cell suspension of splenic cells was cultured using L.M. Hahn medium supplemented with 10 microM 2-mercaptoethanol. Under these culture conditions, a rapidly proliferating cell was observed and then expanded after performing limiting dilution cultures. These cells were moderately adherent and phagocytic for sheep red blood cells and Salmonella typhimurium. When tested against a panel of monoclonal antibodies (mAb) using the flow cytometry, MQ-NCSU cells stained readily with anti-chicken monocyte specific (K-1) mAb but did not stain with mAb detecting T-helper, T-cytotoxic/suppressor, and NK cells. MQ-NCSU cells expressed very high levels of Ia antigens and transferrin receptors. In addition, cell-free supernatant obtained from MQ-NCSU culture contained a factor which exhibited cytolytic activity against tumor cell targets. Based on their cultural, morphological, and functional characteristics and mAb reactivity profile, we conclude that MQ-NCSU cell line represents a malignantly-transformed cell which shares features characteristic of cells of the mononuclear phagocyte lineage.