Characterization of target cells for MCF viruses in AKR mice.

The recombinant (MCF) class of murine leukemia virus appears to play an important role in lymphomagenesis in AKR and other mice. Although much effort has been extended in characterizing MCF viruses, relatively little is known about the cells they infect. I examined what cells were targets in AKR mice for both lymphomagenic and nonlymphomagenic MCF viruses. Lymphomagenic MCF viruses of thymic origin (AKR-247 and C58L1) were found to infect and replicate selectively in immature lymphocytes only present in thymic cortex, whereas nonlymphomagenic MCF viruses of splenic origin (C58v-1-C77 and C58v-2-C45) selectively infected and replicated in cells that appeared to B lymphocytes. Virus-binding studies suggested that neither T- nor B-lymphocyte tropisms were determined by selective attachment of virus to the respective cells. These findings demonstrate that in contrast with ecotropic viruses, which can infect many types of cells in the mouse, specific cellular tropisms can exist for MCF viruses, and that MCF infection, and therefore oncogenicity, is closely linked to cellular differentiation.