Spontaneous development of functionally active long-term monocytelike cell lines from channel catfish.

During the course of studies involving the in vitro manipulation of channel catfish peripheral blood leukocytes, spontaneous proliferation was observed with unexpectedly high frequency. Propagation of these spontaneously proliferating cells has resulted in the development of long-term (greater than 11 mo.) cell lines which stain positively for nonspecific esterase and peroxidase, are phagocytic for latex beads, and morphologically resemble mammalian monocytes or macrophages. These long-term cell lines also exhibit two important additional functional features. First, induction with lipopolysaccharide results in the secretion of relatively high levels of catfish high and low molecular weight species of interleukin-1 active on channel catfish and mouse T cells, respectively. Second, these cell lines are efficient antigen-presenting cells to autologous peripheral blood leukocytes for antigen specific in vitro proliferative and antibody responses. This antigen-presenting function is blocked by inhibitors known to prevent antigen processing and presentation by mammalian monocytes. Allogeneic mixtures of cell line (used as antigen-presenting cells) and responding peripheral blood leukocytes, however, resulted in strong mixed leukocyte reaction but not in specific antibody responses. The availability of such cell lines should facilitate further studies on accessory cell functions in fish immune responses.