The productive infection of alveolar macrophages by simian immunodeficiency virus.

Alveolar macrophages obtained from healthy rhesus monkeys were infected with SIV in vitro as documented by the appearance of reverse transcriptase activity in the cell-free supernatant, electronmicroscopy, and immunohistochemical methods detecting SIV-related core protein. The results demonstrate permissive infection of alveolar macrophages with SIV in vitro and define a system for studying macrophage-SIV interactions.