Successful in vitro immortalization of human intestinal mucosal lymphocytes with Herpesvirus saimiri

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Abstract
Mucosal intestinal lymphocytes form the first immune‐cell line of defense in the intestine. Several methodologies, most of them cumbersome and time consuming, have been used to obtain T‐cell clones to unveil their physiological role. In the present work we take advantage of the recently described technique of transformation of T lymphocytes using Herpesvirus saimiri to show that it is possible to immortalize intestinal T‐cell lines derived from healthy and diseased colonic samples and thence easily obtain in vitro intestinal T‐cell lines as a model for physiopathological studies. Intestinal samples were obtained by colonoscopy and digested with dispase and collagenase. Mucosal lymphocytes (assessed by the expression of the CD3 and CD103 markers) were isolated using a Percoll gradient centrifugation and transformed with Herpesvirus saimiri. Sustained growth was observed 3 months later, showing that the cells were successfully transformed, a finding further confirmed by PCR. All cell lines were CD8+TcRαβ+ and HLA‐DR+ CD25 was expressed on 1% of Crohn's disease‐derived cells and on 25% of cells derived from patients with ulcerative colitis. CD80 expression was found on 80–90% of the cells. These immortal cell lines of intestinal origin may be useful in future experiments aimed at elucidating the role of mucosal lymphocytes in health and disease.