BLOOD-TRANSFUSION AS A MEANS FOR TRANSMISSION OF RETROVIRUS-INDUCED LYMPHOPROLIFERATIVE DISEASE IN MICE

Lymphoproliferative disease was elicited in C57BL/6KH and (BALB/cxC57B L/6)F1 hybrids by a single intraperitoneal injection of 10(5) FFU of L P-BM5 virus preparation. The disease could reproducibly be transferred by a single intravenous transfusion of 0.2 mi of whole blood as well as 0.1 mi of blood cells, plasma or serum from the infected animals. F 1 hybrids displayed a delayed development of the disease when an acell ular virus preparation was administered, but they were fully susceptib le to the disease when syngeneic blood from infected Fl donors was tra nsfused. Blood from donors in the prodromal stage was as effective in transmission of the disease as blood from donors with fully developed disease. This indicated that in murine lymphoproliferative disease vir emia develops very early in the course of the disease. It seems that u sing the blood transfusion one could develop a reliable semiquantitati ve assay for the infectiveness of the animals suffering from LP-MBS-in duced lymphoproliferative disease.