Establishment of Marek's disease lymphoblastoid cell lines from transplantable versus primary lymphomas.

Six new Marek's disease (MD) lymphoblastoid cell lines were established in vitro by cultivation in a medium containing 2-mercaptoethanol (2-ME). Attempts using primary lymphoma cells were generally unsuccessful; only one of 28 lymphomas yielded a cell line and that one came from an experimentally immunosuppressed chicken. In contrast, two of seven low-passage, and two of two established MD transplantable lymphomas grew readily in vitro. A sixth line was obtained using buffy coat cells from a leukemic chicken. It was concluded that the use of transplantable tumor cells and a medium containing 2-ME provided a combination highly suited to the establishment of cell lines from MD.