Interactions of vesicular stomatitis virus with murine cell surface antigens.

The process of maturation of vesicular stomatitis virus (VSV) results in the loss of 70% of the H-2k antigenic activity from L-cell plasma membranes. This phenomenon is also demonstrated during VSV infection of cells of the H-2d haplotype. Using the method of inhibition of immune cytolysis, VSV-infected L5178Y tissue culture cells and VSV-infected METH A fibrosarcoma cells grown in vivo show a loss of H-2d activity of 73 and 76%, respectively. Using monospecific antisera, it is seen that VSV infection results in a significant loss of antigenic activity of the gene products of both the H-2D and H-2K regions in cells of the H-2d and H-2k haplotypes. In hybrid cells expressing H-2k as well as H-2b, VSV infection results in the decrease of both H-2 antigenic activities to the same extent. VSV purified from L cells shows considerable H-2k activity, but the reaction of this virus with anti-H-2k serum does not prevent a normal subsequent infection with this virus. VSV may associate with H-2 antigen in the culture medium, but the results of mixing VSV with uninfected H-2-containing homogenates suggest that this association occurs only when the host cell and the cell homogenate share the same H-2 haplotype. Velocity sedimentation of VSV, which would remove contaminating cellular membrane fragments, does not separate H-2 activity from VSV. H-2 activity is also stably associated with VSV throughout sequential sucrose gradient centrifugation steps. It is possible that H-2 antigen is a structural component of VSV grown in murine cells.