Establishment and evaluation of a murine αvβ3-integrin-expressing cell line with increased susceptibility to Foot-and-mouth disease virus

Integrin ανβ3 plays a major role in various signaling pathways, cell apoptosis, and tumor angiogenesis. To examine the functions and roles of ανβ3 integrin, a stable CHO-677 cell line expressing the murine ανβ3 heterodimer (designated as "CHO-677-mανβ3" cells) was established using a highly efficient lentiviral-mediated gene transfer technique. Integrin subunits αν and β3 were detected at the gene and protein levels by polymerase chain reaction (PCR) and indirect immunofluorescent assay (IFA), respectively, in the CHO-677-mανβ3 cell line at the 20th passage, implying that these genes were successfully introduced into the CHO-677 cells and expressed stably. A plaque-forming assay, 50% tissue culture infective dose (TCID50), real-time quantitative reverse transcription-PCR, and IFA were used to detect the replication levels of Foot-and-mouth disease virus (FMDV) in the CHO-677-mανβ3 cell line. After infection with FMDV/O/ZK/93, the cell line showed a significant increase in viral RNA and protein compared with CHO-677 cells. These findings suggest that we successfully established a stable ανβ3-receptor-expressing cell line with increased susceptibility to FMDV. This cell line will be very useful for further investigation of ανβ3 integrin, and as a cell model for FMDV research.