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Age-dependent Transplantability in Rats of Virus-induced Thymic Lymphoma Cultured in Vitro^1,2,

( Department of Pathology, College of Physicians and Surgeons of Columbia University and Francis Delafield Hospital, New York, New York

Leukemic lymphoblasts originating from a thymic lymphoma induced by Gross passage A virus in a W/Fu rat were cultured in vitro over 18 months. Presence of virus in these cultures was established by bioassays in rats and mice.

W/Fu, Sprague-Dawley (S-D), and Fisher (F) rats of different ages were given I. P. injections with cells harvested from these cultures. Lymphomas were produced in all of 87 W/Fu and 22 S-D rats as well as in 9 of 13 F rats injected at 1–15 days of age. The average period of latency was 15 days. None of 34 W/Fu, 10 S-D, or 1 F rats given injections of larger amounts of cells, at 21–154 days of age produced tumors, and resistance to transplantation was abolished only after whole-body x-irradiation of recipients. Lymphomas localized mainly in the parathymic lymph nodes, producing large mediastinal tumors that secondarily involved the thymus. The lumbar-aortic lymph nodes were also involved. Rats thymectomized at birth developed similar lymphomas. These experiments suggest that leukemic lymphoblasts grown in vitro for a long period of time, and carrying virus, are immunologically different from the normal lymphoid cells of the strain of origin. Transplantability in young animals is explained by immunologic immaturity and the major localization in parathymic lymph nodes, by an affinity of leukemic lymphoblasts to colonize and proliferate in this area.

¹ This work was partially presented at the 55th Annual Meetign of the American Association for Cancer Research, April 10, 1964, Chicago, Illinois.

² Supported by Grant C-06215 from the National Cancer Institute, National Institutes of Health, Public Health Service.

³ Permanent address: Universita di Napoli, Italy.

Received 7/27/64.

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