Moloney murine leukemia virus infection accelerates lymphomagenesis in E mu-bcl-2 transgenic mice

E mu-bcl-2 transgenic mice bearing the bcl-2 proto-oncogene linked to the immunoglobulin enhancer (E mu) sporadically develop B or T cell lymphomas after a long latent period. To identify genes that play important roles in development of lymphoid malignancies, proviral insertional mutagenesis with Moloney murine leukemia virus (MMuLV) was carried out in two lines of transgenic mice expressing the bcl-2 gene primarily in B or T cells. MMuLV infection of non-transgenic mice induced primarily mature T cell lymphomas. By contrast, infection of newborn E mu-blc-2 mice with the virus accelerated lymphomagenesis, and nearly all of the mice eventually succumbed to clonal pre-B, B, or mainly immature T cell lymphoma, indicating the active contribution of the bcl-2 gene in lymphomagenesis. Southern blot analysis of tumor DNA from MMuLV-infected transgenic mice revealed a proviral insertion at the c-myc gene in 26% (9/35) of tumors, at the pim-1 gene in 6% (2/35) and at the pim-2 (recently renamed tic-1) gene in 23% (8/35). Some tumors carried two activated oncogenes. No insertion was detected at the bmi-1 gene. These data suggest the usefulness of this transgenic system for analysis of lymphomagenesis involving the activated bcl-2 gene.