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 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 leukemic chicken. It was concluded that the use of transplantable tumor cells and a medium containing 2‐ME provided a combination highly sulted to the establishment of cell lines from MD.