Immunodepression by Rowson-Parr virus in mice: effect of Rowson-Parr virus and Friend leukemia complex infections on background antibody-forming cells to various erythrocytes.

The numbers of background antibody-forming cells (BPFC) toward erythrocytes of various species present in the lymphoid organs of unimmunized susceptible BALB/c and resistant C57BL/6 mice were investigated at various times after infection with Friend leukemia complex (FLC) or Rowson-Parr virus (RPV). Both virus preparations induced an increase of BPFC numbers in both animal strains, but the rate and magnitude of the enhancements produced by RPV were much lower. The degree of potentiation varied with the specificity of the BPFC populations and was more pronounced in the spleen than in the lymph nodes and in BALB/c than in C57BL/6 mice. In the late stage of FLC infection, the numbers of splenic BPFC to some erythrocytes underwent a dramatic fall, which was not observed in RPV-infected mice. BPFC present in BALB/c splenocytes cultured in diffusion chambers implanted in the peritoneal cavity of isogeneic normal mice were not affected by viral infection of the chambers.