Isolation of a B-tropic type-C virus from reticulum cell neoplasms induced in BALB/c mice by SJL/J type-C virus.

D1-murine leukemia virus (MuLV), an N-tropic type-C virus isolated from a spontaneous reticulum cell neoplasm, type B (RCN-B) of an SJL/J mouse was propagated in NIH Swiss mouse embryo cell cultures. When injected into BALB/c mice 1 day after neonatal thymectomy, 30% of the inoculated mice developed RCN-B in 5 months, whereas none of the uninoculated controls did. From the spleen and lymph node extracts of all RCN-B-bearing mice tested, B-tropic type-C viruses (designated E1-MuLV) were isolated in high titers (10-5 minus 10-6 XC plaque-forming units/ml). Only low titers (10-1 minus 10-2 XC plaque-forming units/ml) of N- or B-tropic viruses were isolated from those thymectomized mice, inoculated but nontumorous, whereas only N-tropic viruses were detected in the uninoculated thymectomized mice. No virus was isolated from the nonthymectomized, untreated controls. Antigenically, the viral envelope antigen (VEA) of E1-MuLV was distinct from those of DU-MuLV, xVEA, or Gross-VEA, but some cross reaction with AKR-MuLV-VEA was observed. The relationship of D1-MuLV to E1-MuVL with respect to oncogenesis and viral genome activation was discussed.