The feline lymphoid cell line MBM and its use for feline immunodeficiency virus isolation and quantitation.

We report on the development of a feline T lymphoblastoid cell line obtained from the peripheral blood mononuclear cells (PBMC) of a specific pathogen free cat and designated MBM. The cells are pan-T+, CD4- and CD8- and remained interleukin-2-dependent and concanavalin A-dependent throughout the period of observation. MBM cells have proved at least as sensitive as fresh blasts to infection with cell-free stocks of three feline immunodeficiency virus (FIV) isolates. Upon infection, they exhibit a lytic cytopathic effect. Repeated attempts to establish a chronic infection have failed. Using a limiting cell dilution method, it has been shown that MBM cells may be more sensitive than fresh blasts as substrate for isolating FIV from the PBMC of infected cats. These studies have also shown that considerable individual variations exist in the virus loads present in the PBMC of naturally infected cats, and that load size does not appear to correlate with cat age, clinical status, CD4/CD8 ratio and titer of serum neutralizing antibody.