T-B cell cooperation for bovine leukemia virus expression in ovine lymphocytes

Bovine leukemia virus (BLV) replication in B lymphocytes from experimentally infected sheep depends on three conditions. First, viral production is detected only when the infected animals exhibit blood lymphocytosis. Second, it requires in vitro cultivation but is never observed in vivo. Third, enhancement of virus expression after phytohemaglutinin (PHA) or concavalin A stimulation is observed in lymphocyte cultures for all infected animals, whereas specifically B cell mitogens are inefficient. The PHA effect is linked to the presence of T lymphocytes. In addition, the conditioned medium prepared from PHA-stimulated normal lymphocytes greatly enhances BLV production. Altogether, these results establish that T lymphocytes, through a lymphokine production, are important and may be essential for BLV growth in B lymphocytes.