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The first constant region of the Tcrb gene was completely deleted from the DNA of 8/10 mouse cell lines established from 3-methylcholanthrene-induced RF/J thymic lymphomas, but 6/7 primary lymphomas contained the first constant region sequences. DNA from RF/J thymic lymphomas induced by N-methyl-N-nitrosourea was then examined serially as the tumors were passaged in vivo and adapted to growth in culture as uncloned and, in some cases, cloned lines. Patterns of Tcrb-specific restriction fragments from most tumors changed extensively during continued propagation. Analysis of the patterns often suggested that initial DNA rearrangements within the Tcrb complexes of monoclonal tumors had been followed by further rearrangements within the same genes. However, these different patterns may alternatively have represented successive outgrowth of separate lineages from lymphomas that were polyclonal in origin.

Immunization of rats with syngeneic cells infected with spleen focus-forming virus (SFFV) but not with its helper, Friend murine leukemia virus (FMuLV), produces antisera which specifically neutralize SFFV, and not FMuLV, in the Friend virus complex. To determine which SFFV-encoded protein molecule bears the antigen recognized by these neutralizing antibodies, we studied different lots of rat anti-SFFV antiserum by immunoprecipitation and virus neutralization assays. The ability of these sera to neutralize SFFV correlated with the titer of antibodies to p45gag and not with the titer of those to gp52, suggesting that the neutralizing antibodies recognize the p45gag molecule. To verify this specificity for p45gag, we tested antisera to various MuLV gag gene-encoded proteins for neutralization of SFFV. Goat anti-Rauscher murine leukemia virus (RMuLV) p30 and goat anti-RMuLV p10 sera neither precipitated p45gag from SFFV-infected nonproducer cells nor neutralized SFFV. In contrast, goat anti-RMuLV Pr65gag and goat anti-RMuLV p12 sera precipitated p45gag from SFFV-infected cells and also specifically neutralized SFFV in the Friend virus complex. These findings suggest that, unlike the gag proteins coded for by FMuLV, the proteins coded for by defective SFFV are incorporated into the envelope of virions carrying the SFFV genome, but not into the envelope of those carrying the helper FMuLV genome.

In an initial attempt to test the ability of replication-defective retroviruses to immunize against immunologically related pathogenic viruses, we have worked with the erythroleukemogenic Friend retrovirus complex (FV), which consists of a replication-competent helper component, Friend murine leukemia virus (FMuLV), and a related defective pathogenic component, spleen focus-forming virus (SFFV). An 81-base-pair deletion was introduced into the p15E-encoding region of the env gene of an otherwise replication-competent molecular clone of the FMuLV provirus. After transfection of this clone into cells that package the viral RNA in MuLV coats, infectious virus was released into the culture medium. Mouse fibroblasts infected with this virus, here called delta FMuLV, expressed the truncated viral env gene products in their cytoplasm but not on cell surfaces, and culture fluids from these cells did not transmit the infection to fresh mouse fibroblasts. In preliminary experiments, immunization of mice of H-2-congenic BALB/c strains with delta FMuLV conferred levels of immunity to FV disease ranging from weak to relatively strong. Immunized mice developed anti-FV IgM and IgG antibodies and cytotoxic T cells. Mice observed for 15 weeks after the first of two immunizations showed no detectable pathology, but delta FMuLV DNA was detectable in livers of some immunized mice for at least 3-6 weeks. These results suggest that our approach to development of retrovirus vaccines may be a useful one.

We have constructed a series of "synthetic" target cell lines for an analysis of the specificity of anti-Friend virus (FV) CTL. Our results show that murine H-2 genes and individual retroviral genes can be stable expressed in Fisher rat embryo (FRE) cells, and that their products have the potential to form target structures recognized by mouse CTL. Cells expressing H-2Db and either the env or gag genes of one component of FV, helper Friend murine leukemia virus (FMuLV), were lysed by anti-FV CTL and by CTL generated against FMuLV alone. Experiments with Db-transfected FRE clones infected only with the replication-defective spleen focus-forming virus (SFFV) component of FV indicate that the SFFV genome also provides specificities recognized by both anti-FV and anti-FMuLV CTL, thus demonstrating the existence of a crossreactive CTL population. An unexpected finding was that anti-FMuLV CTL, but not anti-FV CTL were also able to lyse FRE clones that expressed H-2Kb in either the presence or absence of FV. The use of heterologous cell lines for the construction of synthetic target cells thus offers a useful approach for the analysis of T cell specificity.

B10.A(5R) mice (H-2i5), immunized with spleen cells from congenic B10 mice (H-2b), responded to alloantigens of the H-2Db region by producing antibodies of only IgM type. In contrast, they produced both IgM and IgG antibodies when immunized with noncongenic H-2b cells that carry other foreign cell surface antigens (non-H-2) in addition to H-2Db. A hypothesis was proposed comparing the H-2Db antigen on a congenic cell to a hapten on a nonimmunogenic carrier which fails to induce T-cell helper function responsible for the switch from IgM to IgG secretion in B cells. Data presented here confirmed this hypothesis. 5R mice rendered tolerant to the relevant non-H-2 antigens were unable to mount the anti-H-2Db IgG response in a noncongenic immunization. Tolerance induction did not lead to abrogation of the T-cell mediated cytotoxicity.

3-Methylcholanthrene (MCA) skin painting rapidly induced a 100% incidence of thymic lymphomas in RF/J mice. Tumors developed exclusively in cells of the T-lymphocyte lineage and displayed the surface phenotype: Thy-1+, Lyt-1+, Lyt-2+, Qa-1+, H-2K+, H-2D+, TL-, Ig-, Ia-. This phenotype resembled that of cortisone-resistant, medullary thymocytes, whereas the phenotype of spontaneous AKR thymomas resembles that of cortisone-sensitive, cortical thymocytes. The phenotype differed very little from one tumor to another and was maintained during syngeneic passage in vivo and adaptation to growth in culture. Infectious ecotropic murine leukemia virus (MuLV) was produced in a minority of primary tumors and cell lines, but no xenotropic or mink cell focus-inducing virus (MCF) MuLV production was reliably detected. MuLV-related antigen expression on normal thymocytes increased in an age-dependent manner, and levels on thymoma cells were similar to those on thymocytes from age-matched normal controls. MuLV nonproducer tumor cells expressed few or no epitopes of AKR ecotropic gp70, but they were positive when tested with an antiserum prepared against MCFenv glycoprotein.

Erythroleukemia cell lines HFL/d and HFL/b, derived from tumors induced in vivo in BALB/c (H-2d) and congenic BALB.B (H-2b) mice, respectively, by a polycythemia-inducing strain of Friend virus, produced both spleen focus-forming virus (SFFV) and its native NB-tropic helper virus (Friend murine leukemia virus [FMuLV]) during early-passage generations in culture. Eventually each line ceased production of both infectious viruses but retained its tumorigenic potential in syngeneic hosts. Virus-producer and -nonproducer clones of these cell lines were examined for expression of proteins encoded by the SFFV or FMuLV genomes. Lysates of labeled cells were treated with various antiviral sera, and the precipitates were examined by gel electrophoresis. Expression of the FMuLV env gene-encoded precursor protein, gPr84env, was observed in all producer and most nonproducer clones, but the FMuLV gag and pol gene products, Pr65gag and Pr200gag-pol, were uniformly undetectable in nonproducer clones. All HFL/d and HFL/b clones expressed appreciable amounts of the SFFV-encoded envelope protein, gp52, including one exceptional clone which had ceased to express any FMuLV-encoded proteins. The molecular weight of this SFFV-encoded envelope protein was consistently smaller in all HFL/b clones than in HFL/d clones, regardless of their producer or nonproducer status. The virus-nonproducer phenotype thus appears to be due to shutdown of expression of the 5' portion of the FMuLV genome in two independent cell lines.

Females of the RF and SJL inbred mouse strains transmit to their progeny of both sexes a nonmendelian maternal resistance factor (MRF) able to suppress the expression of endogenous ecotropic murine leukemia virus (E-MuLV). This MRF is demonstrable in crosses with AKR mice by comparing E-MuLV expression in the spleens and thymuses of reciprocal F1 generations. DBA/2 and ST/b mice are MRF negative by these criteria. Neonatal inoculation of E-MuLV-containing spleen extracts gives rise to persistent expression of infectious virus in mice of the MRF- but not the MRF+ strains. However, inoculation of the virus in 30-d-old females of the MRF- strains no longer leads to a state of persistent infection; instead, these females become MRF+ and transmit protection against E-MuLV expression to their progeny by AKR and RF males. The MRF appears to be transmitted to the progeny mainly through the milk, since foster-nursing AKR neonates on RF (but not DBA/2) mothers greatly reduces E-MuLV expression in the progeny. These RF-fostered AKR mice also show a reduced and delayed lymphoma incidence, a finding consistent with the idea that maternally transmitted resistance to E-MuLV expression is the basis for the classic maternal resistance to lymphomagenesis seen in the progeny of RF mothers.

The HFL/b tumor cell line, induced by Friend erythroleukemia virus in BALB.B mice, was used to study the relation between virus production or nonproduction and the antigens recognized by Friend virus-specific cytolytic T lymphocytes (CTL). Analysis of clones and subclones of these tumor cells revealed a high degree of heterogeneity with respect to the production and release into culture fluids of infectious Friend virus in vitro, ranging from high levels to low or undetectable levels of virus production. Although no major differences could be detected among the antibody-defined serotypes of the various clones, the susceptibility of cells of individual HFL/b clones to attack by Friend virus-specific CTL varied widely, and those clones which produced large amounts of infectious virus provided the most sensitive target cells. It was also apparent that production of infectious Friend virus was inhibitory to CTL generation in syngeneic mixed leukocyte-tumor cell cultures. Friend erythroleukemia virus-producing cells thus appeared to interact in a complex manner with the host CTL response by modulating their production of infectious Friend virus.

B10.A(5R) mice immunized with C57BL/10 spleen cells demonstrate a normal T-cell-mediated cytotoxicity to H-2Db tumor cells but they do not mount any IgG antibody response to H-2Db alloantigens. B10.A(5R) mice do show a high titered IgG response when immunized with A.BY cells, which differ at H-2Db plus non-H-2 cell surface antigens, or with B10.A(2R) cells, which differ at H-2Db, H-2Kk, and H-2Ik cell surface antigens. These findings indicate a failure of the T-helper cells to induce the switch from IgM to IgG when the H-2Db alloantigens are the only difference on the immunizing cell. In immunizing H-2d mice with congenic H-g2 cells which differ only in the H-2Db region, mice of the C57BL/10 background made only IgM antibodies whereas mice of the BALB/c background made IgG antibodies. This comparison confirms that genes separate from H-2 regulate the T-cell helper function. The genes that influence the T-cell helper function do not regulate the T-cell-mediated cytotoxicity.

Mice of the RF/J strain are highly susceptible to induction of thymic lymphoma by skin painting with 3-methylcholanthrene (MCA), whereas mice of the 129/J and I/LnJ strains are resistant. Resistance was the dominant trait in F1 mice of crosses of RF with each resistant strain. Analysis of the lymphoma incidence in MCA-painted backcross populations indicated segregation of a single dominant gene for resistance in both crosses. None of these strains show inducibility of the aryl hydrocarbon hydroxylase enzyme system, a phenotype attributed to the dominant Ahb gene which is also known to influence susceptibility to MCA-induced lymphoma. The occurrence of the disease in these backcrosses was independent of the hosts' phenotype at either the H-2 or Fv-1 locus, both of which have shown an influence on susceptibility to murine leukemia virus-associated lymphoma in other experimental systems.

Expression of 11 cellular oncogenes was determined in normal vs. lymphomatous thymic tissues of RF and AKR mice; only c-myc and c-myb transcripts were detected in an age-inappropriate pattern in thymomas. Normal thymocytes from young RF mice contained RNA transcripts of both genes, but the transcripts were no longer detected at 9 or more weeks of age. More than 90% of RF thymomas, occurring at 20-28 weeks of age after skin painting with 3-methylcholanthrene at 12 weeks, contained c-myc transcripts, and 70% of the tumors contained c-myb transcripts. Seven cell lines derived from these 3-methylcholanthrene thymomas expressed both cellular genes, as did 2 rare spontaneous thymomas of 12-month-old RF mice. No indication of rearrangement or amplification of either gene was seen in any of the RF tumors or cell lines. In AKR mice, transcripts of the 2 genes persisted longer in the normal thymus than in RF mice, but they were no longer detected at 26 weeks of age. Of 3 thymomas in 6-month-old 3-methylcholanthrene-treated AKR mice, all expressed c-myb and 2 expressed c-myc. Among 11 spontaneous AKR thymomas, however, only 2 showed detectable levels of both genes, and 2 more expressed c-myc or c-myb but not both.

RF/J mice are susceptible to the induction of thymic lymphomas by the carcinogens 3-methylcholanthrene and N-methyl-N-nitrosourea. Given the association of mouse mammary tumor virus (MMTV) with certain thymomas, we examined genomic DNA from chemically induced lymphomas of RF/J mice for new MMTV proviruses. Of 13 tissue culture lines derived from 3-methylcholanthrene-induced tumors, 5 had acquired new proviruses. MMTV amplification coincided with the appearance of viral mRNAs and proteins. However, no primary tumors or animal-passaged tumors contained new proviruses. These observations indicate that MMTV does not have a role in the tumor induction process, although it may become activated and amplified in tissue culture lines derived from tumors.

Friend virus complex (FV), which comprises replication-competent Friend murine leukemia virus (FMuLV) plus replication-defective spleen focus-forming virus (SFFV), induces a multistage erythroleukemia. We have examined the role of replication-competent helper virus in the early and late stages of FV disease by replacing FMuLV, the native helper, with Akv, the endogenous ecotropic MuLV of AKR mice. SFFVP/FRE, an established fibroblast line nonproductively infected with the polycythemic strain of SFFV, was superinfected with FMuLV or with Akv. Although supernatants from these cells showed similar titers in the XC plaque assay, supernatants from Akv-infected SFFVP/FRE cells showed 100- to 5,000-fold less activity than did those from FMuLV-infected cells with respect to spleen focus induction in vivo. Since virions isolated from these two supernatants contained similar ratios of SFFV to helper virus genomic RNA, it did not appear that the difference was due to a relative inability of Akv to package SFFV. Although FMuLV- and Akv-rescued SFFV are equally infectious in a mouse fibroblast cell line (NIH 3T3), FMuLV-rescued SFFV was far more efficient in inducing erythroid bursts in cultured primary bone marrow cells. Adding Akv to preparations of FMuLV-rescued SFFV did not significantly interfere with burst induction. Helper-free SFFV induced 50- to 500-fold more spleen foci when coinjected with FMuLV than it did with Akv. Helper virus also affected mortality rates that reflect the late stage of the disease. When FMuLV- or Akv-rescued SFFV was injected into NIH Swiss mice at dosage levels adjusted to give equal numbers of spleen foci, all mice receiving FMuLV-rescued SFFV developed splenomegaly and died, whereas no mice receiving Akv-rescued SFFV died or developed detectable splenomegaly. When FMuLV was coinjected with Akv-rescued SFFV, the mortality rate rose from 0 to 100%. Injection of helper-free SFFV alone did not induce mortality, but coinjection of helper-free SFFV with FMuLV resulted in 100% mortality. Thus, the helper virus used to rescue SFFV plays at least a quantitatively important role in the early stage of FV disease and a crucial role in the late stage of the disease in vivo.

Cell lines have been established in culture from Friend virus-induced tumors of BALB/c (H-2d) and congenic BALB/c-H-2b (BALB.B) origin. Spleens from virus-infected hosts in the terminal stages of erythroleukemic disease provided tissues for the establishment of subcutaneously transplantable tumors of both strains. Subsequently cells of these tumors were introduced into culture and passed serially. Complete, infectious Friend virus (FV) has been routinely recovered from culture supernates of BALB.B tumor cells (HFL/b) throughout its 2-yr passage history. However, after only a few transfer generations in culture BALB/c tumor cells (HFL/d) became nonproducers of virus detectable in either the spleen focus assay in vivo or the XC assay in vitro. Nonproducer HFL/d cells possessed the complete genomes of the components of the FV complex, since FV could be recovered from them either by cocultivation with helper virus-infected syngeneic embryo fibroblasts or by serial passage in the ascitic form in normal, syngeneic adult hosts.

BALB/c-H-2b (BALB.B) mice are less susceptible to the Friend virus (FV) disease syndrome than congenic BALB/c (H-2d) mice, and spleen cells from FV-infected BALB.B mice are markedly less tumorigenic on transplantation to syngeneic hosts than those from FV-infected BALB/c mice. For these reasons we investigated the expression of FV-associated cell surface antigens on cultured, FV-trnasformed cell lines of BALB.B and BALB/c origin. Both cell lines induced transplantation immunity in syngeneic hosts toward further implantations of the same tumor, BALB.B cells being significantly more potent in this respect than BALB/c cells. BALB.B tumor cells, which produce complete, infectious FV, expressed both the cell surface antigen, FMR (corresponding to the cytotoxic antibodies in anti-FV antisera), and virus envelope antigen (VEA, corresponding to the virus-neutralizing antibodies in the anti-FV antisera). BALB/c tumor cells, on the other hand, which are FV-nonproducers, expressed no FMR antigen, but did express VEA on their surfaces for at least 100 passages in culture. These cells could induce FV-neutralizing but not cytotoxic anti-FMR antibodies when used to immunize syngeneic hosts. The absence of FMR antigen may be the basis for the reduced capacity of BALB/c tumor cells, by comparison with BALB.B tumor cells, to induce transplantation immunity. After about the 125th serial transfer in culture, BALB/c tumor cells spontaneously ceased to express VEA and simultaneously became very weak inducers of transplantation immunity in BALB/c hosts. This loss of VEA did not stem from the loss of either the spleen focus-forming virus or the helper virus genomes from these cells, since both viruses could still be recovered from the cell line.

3-Methylcholanthrene-induced T-cell thymic lymphomas in RF mice were examined for involvement of murine leukemia virus (MuLV)-related sequences in leukemogenesis. Both the expression of MuLV-related RNA species and the organization of endogenous MuLV proviral DNA were analyzed. Of 27 primary tumors examined, only 5 exhibited elevated MuLV-related RNA species homologous to xenotropic specific env DNA. None of these RNA species hybridized with ecotropic p15E DNA sequences. Only two of these five tumors contained MuLV-like RNA species that hybridized with ecotropic MuLV long terminal repeat sequences, despite the probe's ability to detect both ecotropic MuLV and mink cell focus-inducing viral RNA. No muLV resembling mink cell focus-inducing virus whose expression could be correlated with lymphomagenesis was detected in either preleukemic thymocytes, primary 3-methylcholanthrene-induced thymic tumors, tumors passaged in vivo, or cell lines derived from tumors. Restriction endonuclease analysis of DNA from both primary tumors and cell lines failed to reveal either proviral DNA with recombinant env genes or rearrangement of endogenous MuLV proviruses. Therefore, chemically induced lymphomagenesis in RF mice appears different from the spontaneous lymphomagenic process in AKR mice with respect to the involvement of endogenous MuLV sequences.

Cytolytic T lymphocytes (CTL) were generated against murine tumors induced by Gross, Friend, or Rauscher leukemia virus (LV) in syngeneic mixed leukocyte-tumor cell cultures. Analogous to the patterns of specificity observed with antibodies to LV-induced cell surface antigens, CTL could be classified into two major groups of specificity. Tumor cells induced by Friend, Moloney, or Rauscher virus and positive for the FMR antigen were killed by syngeneic CTL immune to any one of these three LV; the same CTL, however, were incapable of killing syngeneic tumor cells induced by Gross LV. The converse was true for Gross LV-specific CTL: these CTL were specific for syngeneic tumor cells expressing the Gross virus-associated cell-surface antigen (GCSA), and not the FMR antigen. The H-2 specificities of the two groups of LV-immune CTL were also compared, because in both cases, CTL were restricted in their killing activity to H-2-identical tumor target cells. When CTL from single strains of mice were generated against syngeneic FMR- or GCSA-positive tumor cells, differences were observed with respect both to the requirement for the expression of compatible H-2K or H-2D specificities, and to the intensity of the CTL response in congenic mice of the H-2b, H-2d, and H-2k haplotypes.