Development of a lymphocyte transformation microassay for murine leukemia virus.

A lymphocyte transformation microassay (LTA) was developed from spleen harvests of 6- to 8-week-old BABL/cCr mice. The optimal culture conditions for the microassay were established by measurement of lymphoblastogenesis in response to phytohemagglutin (PHA) and pokeweek mitogen. Immunization, as measured by the LTA, of adult BALB/cCr mice with formalin-inactivated, sucrose-banded, murine type-C viruses was achieved with a three-dose regimen of 200, 100, and 100 mug during 3 successive weeks (Freund's complete adjuvant was used with the first dose). The ip route of immunization induced the best responses in lymphocytes harvested 18 days after the last immunogen was given. The LTA was consistently reproducible, limited only by biological variability of the mouse and the standardization of the antigen preparation. In mice immunized with Rauscher murine leukemia virus (R-MuLV) or AKR MuLV vaccine, the LTA was specific for the C-type virus and could be used to distinguish viral subtypes, because R-MuLV elicited responses significantly different from a B-tropic BALB/c leukemia virus. This specificity was evident when the stimulating antigen was presented as UV-inactivated, sucrose-banded virus or as freeze-thaw extracts of cell infected with MuLV.