Isolation of simian retroviruses closely related to human T-cell leukemia virus by establishment of lymphoid cell lines from various non-human primates.

Simian retroviruses closely related to human T-cell leukemia virus (HTLV) were isolated by establishing virus-producing lymphoid cell lines from 7 species of non-human primates. By co-cultivation with human umbilical cord-blood cells and/or in the presence of interleukin-2, lymphoid cell lines were successfully established from the chimpanzee. African green monkey, pig-tailed macaque, red-faced macaque, Formosan monkey, Japanese monkey and bonnet monkey that had antibodies against HTLV antigens. These cell lines reacted with human sera of ATL patients and monoclonal antibodies against p19 and p24 of HTLV antigens. Cellular DNAs contained the provirus sequences homologous to HTLV-I by Southern blot hybridization. Moreover, they produced extracellular type-C virus particles and RNA-dependent DNA polymerase. All of these lymphoid line cells had Tac antigen, interleukin-2 receptor, and those of chimpanzee and red-faced macaque had helper/induced T-cell markers, while those derived from African green monkey had suppressor/cytotoxic T-cell markers. Furthermore, simian HTLV-related viruses of pig-tailed macaque, red-faced macaque and Japanese monkey were transmitted to human lymphocytes on co-cultivation.