Radiation leukemia virus: a marker for the study of intrathymic T cell differentiation

Radiation Leukemia Virus (RadLV) is a retrovirus, which displays a highly specific thymotropism; after inoculation into young C57 BL/Ka mice, active virus replication is observed only in thymocytes and thymic lymphomas develop in most treated mice. The specific interaction between RadLV and the thymus resides in the particular susceptibility to infection of the most immature cells involved in the intrathymic lymphoid differentiation pathway and of non lymphoid thymic stromal cells. Recent data obtained from 'in situ' hybridization studies for detection of viral transcripts yield more detailed informations on these intriguing interactions.