Friend leukemia complex infection of mice as an experimental model for AIDS studies.

It is now clear that AIDS results from a complex pathogenesis where virus-induced cytopathology represents only one of the contributing factors, while the others remain elusive. For this and other reasons there is much interest in the mechanisms whereby other classically immunodepressive noncytocidal retroviruses, such as viruses of the murine Friend leukemia complex (FLC), affect the immune system. FLC-induced immunosuppression has already provided important leads to the understanding of the mechanisms whereby retroviruses immunosuppress their hosts. It is expected that further investigation of the model will prove useful in several areas of AIDS research, including the development of efficacious drug therapies.