Abstract
Abstract The lack of well characterized, established domestic porcine cell lines hinders advancement of porcine cellular immunology understanding in disease resistance and anti-viral immunity. Numerous cases of multicentric lymphoma were diagnosed in pigs at the time of slaughter. Affected organs were harvested and submitted for single cell isolation and analysis. Culture of disaggregated single cell suspensions in RPMI 1640 with weekly passage resulted in clusters of dividing cells in about 2% of attempted isolations. In one pig, cells grew in approximately 50% of wells. Cell lines were established by limiting dilution repeated 3 times from splenic and subiliac lymph node lymphomas. Initial flow cytometry analysis showed a population of CD3+, CD79a+, CD21+, CD4−, and CD8− cells which have grown and been maintained in culture for more than 7 months and more than 10 subcultures. To further characterize the nature of this paradoxical homogenous population of CD3+ and CD79a+ cells, transcriptome analysis is being carried out to validate initial cytometric findings and identify key gene pathways. This new porcine lymphoma cell line will be a valuable resource for more in-depth cellular investigations into the porcine immune system, as well as providing a potential tool for the growth of lymphotropic viruses of pigs and humans.