Bone marrow transplantation therapy using resistant donors for retrovirus-induced leukaemia in mice

Infection with Rauscher leukaemia virus (RLV) causes erythroleukaemia, anaemia, viraemia, and splenomegaly, features which develop very quickly in mice of strains susceptible to RLV but more slowly or not at all in strains resistant to RLV. We compared the effects of bone marrow transplantation (BMT) of donor cells obtained from a mouse strain resistant to the virus with the effects of BMT of donor cells obtained from strains susceptible to the virus, in recipient virus-susceptible mice which had previously been inoculated with RLV. Our results indicated that bone marrow transplantation from a marrow-resistant donor, but not from a susceptible donor, delayed the expression of leukaemia and delayed death, although such treatment did not appear to inhibit viral infection in susceptible recipients.