Susceptibility and Resistance to Viral Leukemogenesis in the Mouse. I. Biologic Definition of the Virus2

Publisher Website
Google Scholar
Abstract
A leukemogenic virus, BALB/Tennant-leukemia (B/T-L), previously isolated from a lymphoid leukemia occurring in a BALB mouse strain, was defined biologically by titration in sucklings of the BALB/cJ strain and by determination of its virulence for BALB/cJ mice of various ages and for sucklings and adults of a spectrum of 11 other strains. The virus was antigenic in guinea pigs as demonstrated by serum neutralization tests, but rabbits did not develop measurable neutralizing antibodies to the virus. In the fifth passage, at which level the virus was used throughout these studies, the titer of the virus was approximately 10−4 in the primary (BALB/c) strain. When inoculated within the first few days of life with a 10−1 dilution of virus, 100 percent of these mice died with lymphoid leukemia at an average age of 3.0 months. Leukemia induction decreased among those inoculated at a later age, or at a higher dilution of virus, as evidenced by a drop in percentage and a gradual lengthening of the latent period. The pattern of response to the virus in allogeneic hosts was examined for a possible direct correlation between the response of a given host strain to the virus and the histocompatibility-2 (H-2) allele carried by that strain. No direct correlation was found, but there were indications that the H-2 constitution of the host might play a significant role in susceptibility to the virus, and further studies are in progress. Potent leukemogenic viruses were recovered from spontaneous leukemias of the AKR/J and C58/J strains by cell-free passage in isogeneic sucklings. One of these C58 filtrates also induced mammary tumors which appeared in 6 of 7 C58 females at 3 months of age. Mammary tumors are rarely seen among mice of this strain.