title: Chicken T-cell growth factor: use in the generation of a long-term cultured T-cell line and biochemical characterization.
abstract: Supernatants from concanavalin A (Con A)-stimulated chicken spleen cells were used to generate a long-term cultured cell line from antigen-primed chicken peripheral blood leukocytes. This line has been kept in continuous proliferation in vitro for more than 25 weeks. Morphologically these cells were lymphoblastoid and expressed class I and class II antigens of the major histocompatibility complex as well as T-cell (but not B-cell or macrophage) antigens. In addition they contained no peroxidase or non-specific esterase activity, neither were they phagocytic. Proliferation of the line was totally dependent on exogenous T-cell growth factor (TCGF) activity provided by the Con-A-stimulated spleen cell supernatant, comparable with the proliferation of Con-A-induced T-cell blasts. TCGF activity from the supernatant was absorbed both by the long-term cultured T cells and by Con A blasts, demonstrating the presence of receptors for the same TCGF species on the two populations. We have used the long-term cultured cell line to characterize chicken TCGF further. The molecular weight of the biologically active fractions found by gel filtration on Sephadex G-100 was approximately 13,000 and isoelectric focusing showed chicken TCGF to have a pI of pH 5.9. We propose that the TCGF described here is the chicken analogue to the mammalian interleukin 2.
mesh_terms: D000818:Animals; D000954:Antigens, Surface / Q000032:analysis / Q000145:classification; D002460:Cell Line; D002645:Chickens; D002850:Chromatography, Gel; D003208:Concanavalin A / Q000494:pharmacology; D006649:Histocompatibility Antigens / Q000032:analysis / Q000145:classification; D007376:Interleukin-2 / Q000096:biosynthesis / Q000302:isolation & purification / Q000502:physiology*; D007525:Isoelectric Focusing; D008213:Lymphocyte Activation; D008297:Male; D010587:Phagocytosis; D013154:Spleen / Q000166:cytology / Q000276:immunology; D013601:T-Lymphocytes / Q000032:analysis / Q000166:cytology / Q000276:immunology*
chemical_list: D000954:Antigens, Surface; D006649:Histocompatibility Antigens; D007376:Interleukin-2; D003208:Concanavalin A