Abstract
Summary
A study was undertaken to establish the salient characteristics of rat C type virus spontaneously released by an established cell line of Wistar-Furth rat embryo fibroblasts. The virus designated herein as WF-RaLV was found to have the typical characteristics of an infectious mammalian C type virus. The virus has a density of 1.14 g/ml in sucrose gradients, a RNS dependent DNA polymerase enzyme (reverse transcriptase), the gs-1 antigenic marker of the rat C type viruses and the shared gs-3 or interspecies antigen of the mammalian C type viruses. The virus was infectious for rat embryo cultures but not for embryo cultures of mouse and human origin. The virus was serially propagated and assayed in vitro by reverse transcriptase induction test and electron microscopy. A cell transforming rat leukemia pseudotype of Kirsten strain of murine sarcoma virus was prepared which had the host range and envelope antigenic characteristics of WF-RaLV. Preliminary studies indicated that the virus is well suited for large scale production of virus suitable for gs antigen and antibody production.
We thank Dr. Roger Wilsnack for providing the goat antiserum, IS-8 against feline leukemia virus (prepared and supplied under SVCP Contract NIH 69-54) and Dr. Jung Woo and Peter Sottong for collaboration and assistance in the preparation and preliminary characterization of the gs-1 antigen of WF-RaLV described herein.
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