Studies on the role of the host immune response in recovery from Friend virus leukemia. II. Cell-mediated immunity

Congenic mouse strains differing only at genes within the H-2 complex were found to have virus-specific cytotoxic effector cells in their spleens during or after recovery from Friend leukemia virus-induced splenomegaly. These effector cells were theta-positive T lymphocytes which functioned in vitro without help or inhibition by B lymphocytes or glass-adherent cells. The antigenic specificities recognized by the effector cells were viral-induced cellular antigens apparently different from those identified by serological techniques.