Sequence-based characterization of swine leucocyte antigen alleles in commercially available porcine cell lines

P>A total of 53 alleles at five highly polymorphic swine leucocyte antigen (SLA) loci (SLA-1, SLA-3, SLA-2, SLA-DRB1, and SLA-DQB1) were identified in eight commercially available porcine cell lines (ESK-4, LLC-PK1, MPK, PK13, PK15, PT-K75, SK-RST, and ST). This information is essential for the use of these cell lines to understand the role of SLA genes and proteins in swine models of transplantation, xenotransplantation, and in swine immune responses to infectious diseases and vaccines. The ready availability of these cell lines also makes them a good source of reference DNA for SLA allele typing.