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Inhibition of Concanavalin A Response during Osteopetrosis Virus Infection¹

Department of Microbiology and Immunology, Duke University Medical Center, Durham, North Carolina 27710

Infection of animals with oncogenic viruses frequently leads to an immunosuppressed state. We have examined immunosuppression induced by an avian osteopetrosis virus, myeloblastosis-associated virus of subgroup B inducing osteopetrosis [MAV-2(O)], and our results suggest that this virus induces immunosuppression by a novel mechanism. Lymphoid cells from osteopetrotic chickens did not respond to a wide dose range of concanavalin A (Con A) over a wide cell density range. Failure to undergo blastogenesis was not due to a lack of Con A-binding sites, since ¹²⁵I-labeled Con A bound to lymphocytes from infected and uninfected chickens. Infected lymphocytes failed to respond to sodium metaperiodate stimulation, indicating that failure of blastogenesis was not due to a blockage of Con A receptor sites. MAV-2(O) infection of chicks 8 days of age resulted in a transient immunosuppression which appeared 1 to 2 weeks after infection. Cell-mixing experiments showed that MAV-2(O)-induced immunosuppression was not attributable to suppressor cells. In contrast, adherent cells from normal lymphoid preparations restored mitogenicity to lymphocytes from MAV-2(O)-infected animals. Adherent cells were present in the spleen and peripheral blood lymphocytes of MAV-2(O)-infected chickens in numbers comparable to those of the uninfected animal, and both sets of cells contained Fc-dependent phagocytic activity and nonspecific esterase. Peritoneal exudate cells were elicited from osteopetrotic and normal chickens in similar numbers. We conclude that MAV-2(O) induces immunosuppression by interfering with an accessory function of macrophage-like adherent cells.

¹ This study was supported by Research Grants CA12323 and CA14236 from the National Cancer Institute, NIH, Bethesda, Md.

² Postdoctoral trainee supported by NIH Grant CA 09111. Present address: Department of Biology, Trenton State College, Trenton, N. J. 08625.

³ To whom requests for reprints should be addressed, at Department of Microbiology and Immunology, Box 3020, Duke University Medical Center, Durham, N. C.

Received 11/18/81. Accepted 6/ 8/82.

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