Immortal avian cells

Abstract

The invention features apoptosis-resistant, non-transformant immortalised avian cells, in particular, avian tissues, i.e., other than blood or haematopoietic cells, particularly fibroblasts and epithelial cells, for instance embryos.

1 . A method for producing viruses in an avian cell line, said method comprising: 
 (i) providing avian cells which are immortalized, but untransformed, and which comprise an anti-apoptotic bcl-2 gene into their genome;    (ii) culturing said avian cells;    (iii) infecting said cultivated avian cells with a virus and producing said virus.    
     
     
         2 . The method of  claim 1 , wherein the cultivated avian cells are chronically infected by the virus.  
     
     
         3 . The method of  claim 1 , wherein the virus is an avian virus.  
     
     
         4 . The method of  claim 1 , wherein the virus is a duck virus.  
     
     
         5 . The method of  claim 1 , wherein the virus is chosen among the group consisting of duck adenovirus, duck parvovirus and duck reovirus.  
     
     
         6 . The method of  claim 1 , wherein the virus is chosen among the group consisting of poxvirus, canarypox, fowlpox, Marek's Disease Virus serotype 1, Marek's Disease Virus serotype 2, HVT and Gumboro disease virus.  
     
     
         7 . The method of  claim 1 , wherein the cells comprise, integrated into their genome, the SV40 T+t gene.  
     
     
         8 . The method of  claim 7 , wherein the SV40 T+t gene is under the control of the MTI promoter.  
     
     
         9 . The method of  claim 4 , wherein the cell line is cell line TDF-2A bcl-2, which is deposited in the CNCM under reference number I-1709.  
     
     
         10 . The method of  claim 3 , wherein the cell line is cell line TCF-4.10 bcl-2, which is deposited in the CNCM under reference number I-1711.