Pathogenesis of age dependent paralysis by a temperature sensitive mutant (tsl) of Moloney murine leukemia virus-TB.

The tsl mutant of Moloney murine leukemia virus-TB produces neurological disease leading to fatal hind limb paralysis when inoculated in newborn BALB/c mice. The present study was under taken to assess the role of T and B lymphocytes in age dependent resistance to tsl induced paralysis in BALB/c mice. The adoptive transfer of non-immune splenic unseparated lymphoid cells, T cells and B cells and tsl immune B cells and T cells to newborn BALB/c mice infected with tsl did not prevent the development of paralysis. However, adoptive transfer of immune splenic unseparated lymphoid cells and immune T cells delayed the onset of paralysis by 5 to 10 days as compared to the mice which did not receive the immune lymphocytes. Athymic BALB/c nude mice inoculated with tsl at days 1 and 10 after birth failed to develop the paralytic disease. Transfer of tsl neutralising antibody also delayed the onset of paralysis. Mice (10 days old) treated with cyclophosphamide, cyclosporine A, cortisone acetate and anti-T cell serum when inoculated with tsl also did not develop neurological disease. The results suggest that age related resistance to neurological disease may not be associated with B cell mediated immunity.

Characterization of a continuous lymphocyte cell line derived from BALB/c mice inoculated with a recombinant Moloney murine leukemia virus-TB.

Neonatal BALB/c mice were inoculated (ip) with a recombinant Moloney murine leukemia virus-TB. Majority of the inoculated mice developed lymphoma within 5-7 months post infection. The cells from splenic lymphomas were cultured and 3 continuous cell lines (GP1, GP2 and GP3) developed. GP1 was single cell cloned and characterized. Based on Thy 1.2 (98.4%) phenotypic marker, the cell line was categorized as T cell line. The percent positivity for different cell surface markers on analysis with FACS was 98.4, 4.8, 5.5, 2.2, 1.8, 1.2 and 9.5 for Thy 1.2, mu, L3T4, Lyt2, Ia, IL2R and PNA receptor, respectively. A total of 16.5% GP1 cells was also positive for Moloney murine leukemia virus envelope protein (gp 70). Incomplete retrovirus like particles were demonstrated in the cytoplasm of GP1 cells by electron microscopy. The cell line on inoculation(ip) in neonatal BALB/c mice produced lymphomic lesions in almost all the vital organs of the mice.