H-2D control of recovery from Friend virus leukemia: H-2D region influences the kinetics of the T lymphocyte response to Friend virus.

A Friend virus (FV)-specific T lymphocyte proliferation assay was used to compare the T lymphocyte responses of H-2 congenic mice that differed in their ability to recover from FV leukemia after inoculation of high virus doses. Gene(s) of the H-2D region influenced the kinetics of this response such that H-2Db/b homozygous mice were positive 6-8 d earlier than H-2Dd/b mice. This correlated with the Rfv-1, H-2D-linked influence on recovery from FV by these mice, and also appeared to explain the prominent effect of virus dose on recovery incidence. These findings were supported by the ability of passively transferred immune splenic T lymphocytes to induce recovery from leukemia at 6 d after FV inoculation, but not at 16 d. H-2a/a mice were found to be unresponsive in the FV-specific T lymphocyte proliferation assay. This effect mapped to the left of H-2D, possibly in the H-2I region, and may be an in vitro manifestation of the Rfv-2 gene. No evidence for nonspecific immunosuppression of the T lymphocyte response to concanavalin A was observed in any of the H-2 congenic F1 mice studied.