Suppression of Established Friend Virus Leukemia by Statolon. III. Development of FV-Leukemogenic and FV-Immunogenic Activities in Bloods, Spleens, and Lymph Nodes

Summary

Statolon, a mycophage from Penicillium stoloniferum, cleared Friend virus (FV) from the blood of infected mice within 3 days after administration and suppressed all leukemogenic activity in the spleens of 40–90% of the DBA/2 mice by the 38th day after inoculation. At that time, the spleen contained many cells capable of inducing resistance to FV in normal mice. As these FV resistance-inducing cells decreased in number over the subsequent 200 days, leukemogenic cells reappeared and characteristic FV leukemia emerged. Statolon-protected mice developed numerous normal-appearing plasma cells in their spleens and lymph nodes, whereas leukemic mice not protected by statolon developed only a few plasma cells, many of which were abnormal. It is postulated that statolon may produce long-lasting suppression of FV leukemia by promoting an effective immunologic response to FV-leukemic cells.