Retrovirus-induced lymphomagenesis: a correlation between disease pathogenesis and flow cytometric analysis

Perinatal infection with a temperature-sensitive mutant (ts-1) of Moloney murine leukemia virus (MoMuLV) results in massive splenomegaly and thymomegaly in mice and development of lymphoma in >55 % of infected pups. Previous flow cytometry studies showed a decrease in CD4(+) cells in perinatally infected pups, but cell population changes in infected animals with lymphoma compared with infected animals without lymphoma has not yet been reported. In the current study, BALB/c mice were infected with ts-1 through breast milk transmission and observed until development of clinical signs and symptoms of lymphoma and/or symptomatic ts-1 infection. Flow cytometry studies were performed on blood, spleen and thymus samples and correlated with gross morphology and histological changes, resulting from the development of lymphoma. Infected animals with lymphoma had significant decreases in CD4(+) and CD8(+) cell counts in blood and spleen compared with controls. The spleens of infected animals without lymphoma showed a decrease in CD4(+) and CD8(+) cell counts, but this was not significant compared with controls. In the thymus, CD4(+) and CD8(+) cell counts also decreased, but this was not significant in infected animals with and without lymphoma compared with controls. Markers of myeloid cell dysfunction increased in the thymus of animals with infection with and without lymphoma compared with controls. Thus, immunosuppression and CD4(+)/CD8(+) cell decreases in the spleen and thymus are associated with malignant transformation and development of lymphoma in this animal model.