The scientists inserted one gene into the cats that helps them resist the feline form of Aids.
They also inserted a gene that produces a fluorescent protein called GFP, Nature Methods journal reports.
This protein - which is produced naturally in jellyfish - is commonly used in this area of research to monitor the activity of altered genes.
"We did it to mark cells easily just by looking under the microscope or shining a light on the animal," said Dr Eric Poeschla, from the Mayo Clinic in Rochester, US.
The antiviral gene comes from a rhesus macaque, and produces a protein called a restriction factor that can resist Aids-causing viruses affecting other animals.
The team from the US and Japan then transferred this gene, along with the one for GFP, into feline eggs - known as oocytes.
The method worked so well that nearly all offspring from the modified eggs had the restriction factor genes. And these proteins were made throughout the cats' bodies
