Cell growth platform aids African Swine Fever studies

A new approach to growing immune cells in the lab will support efforts to tackle a disease that causes significant losses in the pork industry. 

Researchers have established a process to produce the type of immune cells that are targeted by African Swine Fever in wild and domestic pigs.  

Their system provides a platform to enable scientists to study how domestic and wild pigs respond to infection by the virus – and why wild African pigs show limited signs of illness, while domestic pigs suffer a lethal fever. 

Their efforts could inform the development of farmed pigs that are resilient to disease, and determine whether pigs could be enabled to be entirely resistant to infection. 

A team of researchers led by the Roslin Institute took tissue from domestic pigs, wild boar, red river hog, and warthog, and used these to generate induced pluripotent stem cells – which are in an early stage of development, with the capacity to develop into various tissue types. 

The team then developed the stem cells into macrophages, a type of immune cell that is targeted by African Swine Fever virus.  

As macrophages cannot be cultured long-term in the lab, the stem cell approach provides a renewable source of these cells, by storing stem cells for development into macrophages as required.  

Tests in the lab showed that immune cells from all four species supported the infection and replication of virus, validating their usefulness as laboratory tools.  

Tests revealed a suppressed immune response in warthog macrophages compared with the immune over-reaction experienced by domestic pigs, indicating this might be the reason for the absence of clinical signs of infection and resilience in these wild African pigs.   

Scientists hope their technology will aid the understanding of African Swine Fever infection in domestic pigs, towards the development of ways to mitigate disease and potentially breed pigs that are resistant to infection. 

The study, carried out in collaboration with The Pirbright Institute, Friedrich-Loeffler Institute, Animal and Plant Health Agency and Royal Zoological Society of Scotland, was published in Stem Cell Reports.