Abelson antigen: a viral tumor antigen that is also a differentiation antigen of BALB/c mice.

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Abstract
The serologic detection of a cell surface antigen common to cells transformed by the Abelson murine leukemia virus (A-MuLV) and to normal hematopoietic cells from certain strains of mice is reported. Serum from C57BL/6 mice hyperimmunized with syngeneic A-MuLV lymphoma cells was cytotoxic for the immunizing cells; this reaction was used as the serologic test system for recognition of A-MuLV antigens. Absorption analysis using 40 tumors and 21 cell lines revealed that 2 serologic specificities were detected by this test system: FMR antigen(s) related to the Moloney MuLV helper (the virus from which A-MuLV was originally derived), and an antigen expressed on all cells transformed by A-MuLV. The A-MuLV-specific antigen was also present on uninfected cells from BALB/c bone marrow, spleen and fetal liver but not from adult liver, thymus, lymph nodes or peripheral blood. Abelson antigen was not expressed on bone marrow or spleen cells of 12 other mouse strains. In light of the original isolation of A-MuLV from a BALB/c mouse infected with Moloney virus, Abelson antigen may be a serologic marker for a gene of BALB/c mice, normally encoding a cell surface molecule, that was incorporated into the Moloney virus genome during the generation of A-MuLV.