Rapid Intracerebral Passage and Recovery of Moloney Leukemia Virus From Mouse Brain Tissue2

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Abstract
Moloney leukemia virus may be recovered in large amounts from brain tissue harvested 7 days after intracerebral infection of newborn BALB/c mice. Serial intracerebral passage in newborn mice resulted in a marked increase in virus potency when a 7-day harvest interval was employed. With a 3-day interval, negligible amounts of virus could be recovered, and serial passage resulted in the rapid disappearance of leukemogenic activity. The induced disease was a progressively developing, generalized lymphatic leukemia, identical in all respects to that described by Moloney. No indication of neurotropic adaptation of the virus or other qualitative changes were noted during 16 serial intracerebral passages, and virus was readily recovered from visceral lymphatic tumor tissue. High levels of infectivity persisted in the brain for at least 4 weeks after intracerebral inoculation and were present during advanced stages of the disease. In addition, appreciable yields of virus were recovered from brains of mice that had been infected intraperitoneally when such animals were patently leukemic. The significance of these findings is discussed.