LARGE-SCALE PRODUCTION AND PURIFICATION OF HUMAN RETROVIRUS-LIKE PARTICLES RELATED TO THE MOUSE MAMMARY-TUMOR VIRUS

Human retrovirus-like particles related to mouse mammary tumor virus ( MMTV) are secreted in a steroid-dependent manner by the breast cancer cell line T47D. We report the successful large scale production and pu rification of these particles from culture supernatants of T47D cells and describe the experimental conditions established for this purpose. Thus, mg amounts of particles were produced by large scale culturing of T47D cells in an autoharvesting roller bottle system and purified b y differential centrifugation and continuous flow ultracentrifugation on density gradients with a 50% recovery and a 350-fold enrichment.