Xenotropic viruses: murine leukemia viruses associated with NIH Swiss, NZB, and other mouse strains.

Murine leukemia virus activity is present in tissues from NIH Swiss and other mouse strains after cocultivation with nonvirus-yielding rat cells transformed by Harvey sarcoma virus. The resulting pseudotype sarcoma virus has the same type-specific coat as the virus previously isolated from New Zealand black (NZB) mice, and, like the NZB virus, it is unable to infect mouse cells. The results show that this NZB type virus is endogenous in other strains of mice and is xenotropic; that is, it grows only in cells foreign to the host. This is the first clear demonstration that NIH Swiss mice also carry indigenous infectious murine leukemia virus.