Infection of nonhuman primate cells by pig endogenous retrovirus

The ongoing shortage of human donor organs for transplantation has catalyze d new interest in the application of pig organs (xenotransplantation). One of the biggest concerns about the transplantation of porcine grafts into hu mans is the transmission of pig endogenous retroviruses (PERV) to the recip ients or even to other members of the community. Although nonhuman primate models are excellently suited to mimic clinical xenotransplantation setting s, their value for risk assessment of PERV transmission at xenotransplantat ion is questionable since all of the primate cell lines tested so far have been found to be nonpermissive for PERV infection. Here we demonstrate that human, gorilla, and Papio hamadryas primary skin fibroblasts and also babo on B-cell lines are permissive for PERV infection. This suggests that a ree valuation of the suitability of the baboon model for risk assessment in xen otransplantation is critical at this point.