The establishment of continuous macrophage cell lines from peripheal blood monocytes.

Peripheral blood monocytes were established in cultured from ten different animal species. Using a method of repeated medium changes, monolayers of cells developed from seven of these species. These cells had the following characteristics: they were glass and plastic adherent, phagocytic, possessed many vacuoles and pseudopodia, esterase-positive, exhibited complement and Fc receptors and could partake in antigen-specific immune induction of T cells. These characteristics classify the cells as macrophages. The monolayers could be serially passaged and used for virological and immunological assays.