Replication of Aleutian disease virus in mink lymphocytes infected in vitro

The kinetics of Aleutian disease virus (ADV) replication in mink lymphocytes was followed by the analysis of virus-specific antigens, infectious virus, and viral DNA. Stimulation with pokeweed mitogen (PWM; 20 micrograms/ml) increased the synthesis of ADV DNA in cultivated cells of the B-cell fraction. Maximum virus titers [10(6.5) fluorescence-forming units (FFU)/ml] were achieved after incubating infected cells for 60 h at 32 degrees. At this time, 10.4% of the cells in the B-cell-enriched fraction contained ADV-specific antigens and there was an average of 125 ADV genome equivalents per antigen-positive cell. ADV replication also was detected in T-cell-enriched fractions (with up to 10(5.3) FFU/ml, 5.3% of cells were antigen-positive, with 20 ADV genome equivalents per antigen-positive cell), but was 10 times lower compared with ADV replication in the B-cell fraction.