Long - Term Culture of Bone Marrow - Derived Preleukemic Cells From F - MuLV - tnfected Mice

The replication-competent Friend leukemia virus (F-MuLV) induces leukemias involving three hematopoietic lineages after a latent period of several months. In an attempt to elucidate the early events of the leukemogenic process. we looked for a method allowing the isolation and the long term in vitro maintenance of preleukemic cells. When established as long-term cultures according to the technique described by Dexter et al,1 bone marrow cells obtained from 7/7 apparently healthy F-MuLV-infected preleukemic mice led to the accumulation of immature myeloblastic cells, and to the generation of permanent myeloblastic cell lines, which in most cases further became tumonigenic in preirradiated recipient animals. The delays