Isolation and characterization of Abelson murine leukemia virus-transformed mast cell lines from midgestation embryonic placenta.

Abelson murine leukemia virus was used to transform cells of the midgestation embryonic placenta. The frequency of transformed foci in semisolid agarose was highest when cells were isolated at 10 days of gestation and cell lines could be established in liquid culture. The continuous cell lines express characteristics of cultured mast cells, including surface antigens which are shared with lymphocytes and mononuclear phagocytes. These results imply a relationship between the transforming gene product and the mast cell growth factor interleukin 3.