VIRAL AND CELLULAR SURFACE ANTIGENS OF MURINE LEUKEMIAS AND MYELOMAS : SEROLOGICAL ANALYSIS BY IMMUNOELECTRON MICROSCOPY

Immunoelectron microscopy (IEM) of mouse cells which were productively infected with murine leukemia virus (MuLV) yielded the following conclusions: See PDF for Structure With two exceptions, the alloantigens H-2, θ, Ly-A, and Ly-B were not present on complete or incomplete virions produced by cells bearing these antigens.The exceptions were H-2(k) (but not H-2(b)) and θ both appeared on only a minority of virions and never on more than a small part of the circumference. The incidental discovery of an additional envelope antigen on virions produced by a BALB/c mouse myeloma but lacking from passage A Gross virions distinguishes these two viruses as MuLV subtypes; it also illustrates that IEM can be applied as a primary tool for antigenic analysis, as well as for its usual purpose of finding out where antigens are situated.