[Specificity of the human "leukocytic virus of leukemia"]

The evidence has been obtained indicating the presence of the antigen of leukocyte leukosis virus (LLV) in specimens from patients with leukosis. Immunofluorescence tests with rabbit immune serum to LLV revealed specific fluorescence of the cytoplasm of cells in 19 out of 32 bone marrow punctates and leukocytes in 10 out of 12 blood smears from patients with acute leukosis and chronic myeloleukosis. In these tests, the difference from analogous control materials (from donors, patients with polyarthritis, reticulosclerodermia, mveloma, etc. is highly statistically significant. By the CFT, antibody to LLV-infected cells were detected in 60.8% of patients with leukosis and 18.5% of donors. When examined by the gel precipitation test with the appropriate test-systems LLV antigen was found to contain no group-specific antigen of murine leukosis virus or antigen of oncornaviris D from HEp-2 continuous cell line.