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

Integrin αvβ3 plays a major role in various signaling pathways, cell apoptosis, and tumor angiogenesis. To examine the functions and roles of αvβ3 integrin, a stable CHO-677 cell line expressing the murine αvβ3 heterodimer (designated as "CHO-677-mαvβ3" cells) was established using a highly efficient lentiviral-mediated gene transfer technique. Integrin subunits αv 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-mαvβ3 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 (TCID(50)), 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-mαvβ3 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 αvβ3-receptor-expressing cell line with increased susceptibility to FMDV. This cell line will be very useful for further investigation of αvβ3 integrin, and as a cell model for FMDV research.