Secondaryin vitrostimulation of specific cytotoxic cells to newcastle disease virus in chickens

Abstract

Previous work on cell‐mediated cytotoxicity in the chicken has relied on in vivo techniques for the generation of a heterogeneous population of effector cells that are assayed for cytotoxicity directly following removal from the bird. In this work, spleen cells were removed from NDV‐primed chickens and restimulated in vitro for 5 to 6 days. This gave rise to a non‐adherent population of effector cells that were capable of rapidly lysing NDV‐labelled target cells, as measured in a ⁵¹Cr‐release assay. These results are broadly similar to those gained in parallel experiments with mice, where a classical cytotoxic T cell response is evoked. In the light of these observations, it is considered possible that the avian effector cell may also be a T cell.