Characterization of African green monkey B-cell lines releasing an adult T-cell leukemia-virus-related agent.

Eight lymphoblastoid cell lines were established from the peripheral blood of individual African green monkeys (AGM). The AGM-2206 line grew out spontaneously. The others - AGM-6, 7, 8, 10, 12, 13, and 16 - were obtained after infection of peripheral AGM lymphocytes with cell-free culture supernatant of AGM-2206. All lines contained, and were probably transformed by, AGM-EBV. Moreover, they expressed immunoglobulins but lacked the Leu l T-cell marker. Thus they were B cells. Since a high percentage of AGMs are naturally infected with a virus similar to adult T-cell leukemia virus (ATLV), we examined these cell lines for ATLV. With immunofluorescence tests we detected ATLV-related antigens (ATLA) in three of the eight cell lines. EBV membrane antigen was present in three out of four. The highest percentage (40%) of ATLA-positive cells was found in the AGM-13 line. After metabolic labelling of these cells, ATLV-specific polypeptides p24, p19, p15, and p10 were detected. Hybridization experiments showed that both AGM-2206 and AGM-13 cell lines contained ATLV-proviral DNA. Electron micrographs of AGM-13 revealed a few type-C particles morphologically similar to the MT-2 virus. By cocultivation this AGM virus was able to infect and immortalize human peripheral blood lymphocytes. One such human cell line, NA-13, expressed polypeptides closely related to ATLV core antigens but a 68,000 mol.wt. glycopolypeptide was serologically distinct from MT-2 ATLV gp68.