Donor cell leukemia after bone marrow transplantation in the Friend leukemia in mice.

After lethal irradiation (800 R) Friend virus (FV-P)-infected leukemic DBA/2 mice were transplanted with normal bone marrow cells. Isogeneic transplantation led to an immediate relapse of leukemia. Therefore, allogeneic bone marrow cells were taken from almost FV-P resistant C57BL/6 mice. A measure of leukemia development was given by the number of erythropoietin-independent erythroid colonies (CFU-EI) in bone marrow and spleen, characteristic for the Friend leukemia. Even after allogeneic transplantation leukemia recurred after 5 to 19 days. By an electrophoretic analysis of the hemoglobin, it could be shown that the transformed erythropoiesis was donor derived. Thus, marrow of C57BL/6 origin loses its FV-P resistance in allogeneic leukemic lethally irradiated recipients and is transformed by the surviving virus.