Expression of murine leukemia viruses in RFM mice with host versus graft disease after perinatal inoculation of (T6 X RFM)F1 lymphohemopoietic cells.

Host versus graft disease is the fatal syndrome of altered immunity that follows the perinatal inoculation of related F1 hybrid spleen cells to susceptible strains of inbred mice. The allogenic reaction results in severe depletion of T-lymphocytes, but causes hyperplasia and hypersecretion of B-cells. Among the long-term survivors of acute host versus graft reactions, there is a high incidence of nonthymic lymphomas associated with ecotropic murine leukemia virus that may be of donor F1 origin. The present studies were done to determine whether ecotropic murine leukemia virus played any role in the pathogenesis of acute host versus graft disease in RFM mice perinatally inoculated with (T6 X RFM)F1 spleen cells. In RFM/(T6 X RFM)F1 chimeras, N-tropic murine leukemia virus can be detected as early as 3 days. The progression of the disease was accompanied by increasing viral expression. The inoculation of N-tropic virus of F1 donor origin into RFM neonates failed to induce disease, although the virus proliferated. Detection of progressively rising titers of antibody to murine leukemia virus linked the virus to the development of hyperimmunoglobulinemia by virtue of its ability to serve as a replicating source of antigens. These and other studies provided evidence that the seemingly paradoxical appearance of hyperimmunoglobulinemia in T-cell-deficient mice with the host versus graft syndrome is due, at least in part, to the stimulation of presensitized F1 donor B-cells, which are not destroyed in the allogenic reaction, as are the T-cells. Another unusual finding was the detection of polytropic murine leukemia virus in 25-day-old RFM/(T6 X RFM)F1 chimeras. It is suggested that the allogenic host versus graft reaction favored the formation of recombinants.