Moloney murine sarcoma virus 349 induces Kaposi's sarcomalike lesions in Balb/c mice

Moloney murine sarcoma virus (MoMuSV349) is produced by MuSV349 cells in at least eight-fold excess over the replication-competent helper virus. Less than 48-hours-old Balb/c mice inoculated intraperitoneally with supernatant from MuSV349 cells containing approximately 10(4) MuSV349 infectious units developed clinical symptoms, including severe generalized wasting, 15 to 20 days after inoculation. These infected mice became moribund 35 to 45 days after inoculation. Gross examination of the bodies revealed the presence of cutaneous and subcutaneous 0.2-cm to 1.5-cm macules, plaques, or nodules located predominantly on the ventral abdomen and legs. Nodules also were found in the spleen, liver, ovaries, testes, meninges, nerves, and skin. The nodules were semisoft, cystic, or solid and some expressed variable amounts of blood. Histologic examination of the macules, plaques, and nodules showed spindlelike cells intermingled with tortous, jagged vascular channels lined by plump and normal endothelial cells and unlined slitlike spaces filled with erythrocytes. These angiomatous lesions were infiltrated extensively with neutrophils, lymphocytes, macrophages, and some plasma cells. In some cases the lesions also included foci of densely packed eosinophils. These angiomatous lesions are clearly distinguishable from the fibrosarcomas induced by the myeloproliferative sarcoma virus (MPSV), and resemble the sarcomas induced in mice by Gz-MSV and Balb MSV, the sarcomas induced in rats by MPSV and Ha-MSV, and the acute generalized form of Kaposi's sarcoma (KS) associated with acquired immune deficiency syndrome (AIDS) in humans. Electron microscopy also revealed the presence of numerous extracellular type C virions and virions budding from the plasma membrane of endothelial and spindlelike cells. Erythrophagocytosis by the endothelial and spindlelike cells was demonstrated by light and electron microscopy. The widely disseminated lesions appear to have developed simultaneously as a consequence of viremia rather than metastasis.