Failure to demonstrate a role for line Ib tumor-associated surface antigen in the etiology of age-dependent polioencephalomyelitis.

In the preceding paper [Morris et al. (1982), Molec. Immun. 19, 973-982] we demonstrate an associative interaction between the line Ib tumor-associated surface antigen (Ib-TASA) and the Dk/Kk regions of the major histocompatibility complex, i.e. 'altered-self' antigen. We originally hypothesized that age-dependent polioencephalomyelitis (ADPE) occurred as the result of immune recognition of a 'self'-determinant on the 'altered-self' antigen. In this report we used the non-ionic detergent, NP-40, to solubilize Ib cell surface antigens. Although immunization of immunocompetent C58 mice with the soluble NP-40 Ib cell extract afforded protection to lethal tumor challenge, the extract failed to induce ADPE in immunosuppressed mice. Data presented here demonstrate that Ib-TASA is not involved in the etiology of ADPE. The evidence suggests that lactic dehydrogenase virus, which is a silent virus passaged with line Ib leukemia, is the causative agent of the paralytic disease.