A new class of murine leukemia virus associated with development of spontaneous lymphomas.

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Abstract
A new type of murine leukemia virus was detected in thymuses of leukemic and late preleukemic AKR mice, in lymphomas developing in NIH Swiss mice carrying the AKR ecotropic virus-inducing loci Akv-1 or Akv-2, and in the thymus of a preleukemic C58 mouse. The viruses induce focal areas of morphologic alteration in a mink lung cell line and are tentatively referred to as mink cell focus-inducing (MCF) strains. They have the host range of xenotropic and N-tropic ecotropic murine leukemia viruses, are neutralized by antisera to ecotropic and xenotropic viruses and are interfered with by both viruses. They may represent a particular type of genetic recombinant which emerges during the preleukemic period in high-ecotropic-virus mouse strains, and they may play a significant role in the etiology of spontaneous lymphomas.