title: Cross-species infectivity and pathogenesis of the Friend murine leukemia virus complex in Syrian hamsters.
abstract: To investigate cross-species infectivity and pathogenesis of Friend murine leukemia virus (MuLV) in hamsters, we infected newborn Syrian hamsters with ecotropic Friend MuLV that was passaged in BALB/c mice for approximately 30 years. During acute infection, 39.5% of newborn Syrian hamsters developed severe growth interruption and weight loss, spleen atrophy, severe lymphocyte depletion, and massive viral antigen loads in the spleen. The lymph nodes and thymuses were observed in all diseased hamsters. Ecotropic Friend MuLV was rescued from the sera and spleen and heart extracts of the diseased hamsters, and the same disease was confirmed by induction of erythroleukemia in BALB/c mice. Our results demonstrate that an ecotropic MuLV after extended passage in vivo to infect hamster cells that are resistant to infection by wild type MuLV, causing pathologic lesions and a wasting syndrome in newborn hamsters in vivo. This may occur with variants of Friend MuLV that have lower infectivity in hamster cells and are not cleared by the immune system of newborn hamsters. These findings suggest the potential danger of the interspecies transmission and pathogenesis of heterologous retroviruses in humans.
authors.affiliation: Department of Microbiology, Pathology, Harbin Medical University, Bio-Pharmacological Key-Laboratory, Heilongjiang Province 150086, China.
authors.forename: Xiaobei
authors.initials: X
authors.lastname: Chen
authors.forename: Rong
authors.initials: R
authors.lastname: Da
authors.forename: Xiaoming
authors.initials: X
authors.lastname: Jin
authors.forename: Wuqi
authors.initials: W
authors.lastname: Song
authors.forename: Xiaoguang
authors.initials: X
authors.lastname: Li
authors.forename: Yingmei
authors.initials: Y
authors.lastname: Fu
authors.forename: Hong
authors.initials: H
authors.lastname: Ling
authors.forename: Zhaohua
authors.initials: Z
authors.lastname: Zhong
authors.forename: Kenichi
authors.initials: K
authors.lastname: Yamamura
authors.forename: Akinori
authors.initials: A
authors.lastname: Ishimoto
authors.forename: Fengmin
authors.initials: F
authors.lastname: Zhang
mesh_terms: D000818:Animals; D001284:Atrophy / Q000473:pathology / Q000821:virology; D006224:Cricetinae; D005622:Friend murine leukemia virus / Q000254:growth & development* / Q000472:pathogenicity; D006321:Heart / Q000821:virology; D007942:Leukemia, Experimental / Q000473:pathology / Q000821:virology; D008198:Lymph Nodes / Q000473:pathology / Q000821:virology; D008231:Lymphopenia / Q000821:virology; D008647:Mesocricetus; D051379:Mice; D008807:Mice, Inbred BALB C; D012192:Retroviridae Infections / Q000473:pathology / Q000821:virology*; D044967:Serum / Q000821:virology; D013154:Spleen / Q000473:pathology / Q000821:virology; D013950:Thymus Gland / Q000473:pathology / Q000821:virology; D014412:Tumor Virus Infections / Q000473:pathology / Q000821:virology*; D015431:Weight Loss