The role of the thymus in the pathogenesis of hind-limb paralysis induced by ts1, a mutant of Moloney murine leukemia virus-TB.

Newborn homozygous BALB/c nude (nu/nu) mice, their heterozygous (+/nu) littermates, and normal BALB/c (+/+) mice were infected with ts1, a paralytogenic mutant of Moloney murine leukemia virus-TB (MoMuLV-TB). Our results indicate that while infection of +/nu and +/+ mice with ts1 results in severe pathological changes in the central nervous system (CNS) and paralysis, infection of nu/nu mice results in only mild to moderate pathology within the CNS and no paralysis. On the other hand, 50% of nude mice reconstituted with T cells when infected with ts1 developed paralysis and showed more pronounced degeneration of nervous tissue than nude mice infected with ts1 alone. These observations strongly suggest that the thymus, the functional T lymphocytes, or both play an important role in the ts1-induced neurologic disorders in infected mice.