VIRAL HEPATITIS ASSOCIATED WITH TRANSPLANTABLE MOUSE LEUKEMIA

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Abstract
The isolation of a virus causing hepatitis from mice carrying line I leukemia is reported. Ordinarily the virus is latent and asymptomatic. If the mice are treated with either urethane (1000 mg/kg) or methylformamide (400 mg/kg) before and after virus inoculation, the disease becomes manifest and is characterized by marked liver necrosis. Susceptibility to the virus varies with the age and strain of the host mouse; the Princeton Rockefeller Institute (PRI) weanling mice are the most sensitive of those tested. Mice which survive the disease are immune to subsequent infection. The virus reverts to the latent stage by passage through several generations of immunized mice. The relationship of this hepatitis virus to viruses causing similar diseases in mice is discussed.