Genetic resistance to murine leukemia induced by different radiation leukemia virus variants; a comparative study on the role of the H-2 complex.

Association of resistance to leukemogenesis with the H-2 complex was investigated. Three variants of the radiation leukemia virus: D-RadLV, RadLV and RS-RadLV were tested. Using congenic and recombinant mouse strains, the region including H-2K and I-A/B was found to be involved with resistance to all three viruses. In addition, H-2D-region linked resistance was found in leukemogenesis in two of the three passages. The phenotypic expression of resistance associated with H-2D seemed to depend on the simultaneous presence of H-2K-H-21-linked resistance alleles. The H-2 haplotypes associated with resistance or sensitivity to the different RadLV variants were different for each passage, suggesting that there is a large degree of heterogeneity both in H-2-linked resistance and between the radiation-induced leukemia viruses.