Immortalization of bovine primary epithelial cells to isolate foot-and-mouth disease virus

A cell line of bovine origin was immortalized to isolate foot-and-mouth disease virus (FMDV). The immortalization was performed by infection of bovine primary epithelial cells with a recombinant retrovirus that overexpressed the human telomerase (hTERT), after primary culture of fetal bovine kidney tissue and removal of fibroblasts. After cloning the immortalized cell line into single cells, the cloned cell lines were named JNUBK-1, JNUBK-2, JNUBK-3 and JNUBK-4, according to their characteristics. To confirm the epithelial phenotype of the cell lines JNUBK-3 and JNUBK-4, which showed stable proliferation capability over 35 generations after immortalization, the expression of cytokeratin and fibronectin was measured. Finally, the FMDV titer in the JNUBK-3 and JNUBK-4 cell lines was measured and was 800∼2,000 times higher than that of the currently used cell line IRBS-2. In conclusion, more sensitive isolation and production of FMDV became possible through the use of the immortalized JNUBK-3 and JNUBK-4 cell lines