Modulation of hormone secretion in vitro by murine retrovirus

In an attempt to elucidate the role of viruses in certain neuroendocrine disorders, we have demonstrated that infection of endocrine cells (GH-3 and Y-1) in vitro by moloney murine leukemia virus (M-MuLV) resulted in diminution of cell-specific secretory function, hormone secretion into culture. In GH-3 (rat anterior pituitary gland) active (initial) and persistent infection by M-MuLV resulted in approximately 80% reduction in prolactin and growth hormone secretion. The adrenal cortex tumor cell line (Y-1), when actively infected with the same virus, showed a transient increase in fluorogenic steroid secretion; however, on subsequent passages of infected cell cultures, steroid secretion was markedly reduced to about 10% of the uninfected Y-1 cells. The virus yield from M-MuLV-infected cultures of Y-1 and GH-3 cells produced a significantly lower amount of virus than the control NIH-3T3-infected cell cultures.