Immunofluorescence and virus recovery: correlation in a murine leukemia system.

Results from mouse infectivity assays and immunofluorescent examinations during pathogenesis of the Moloney murine leu kemia virus infection in adult BALB/c mice indicated that the two detection methods could be only partially correlated. The fluorescent antibody technic detected viral antigens as early as 4-S days after virus inoculation, although infectious virus could not be extracted from the same tissues until the 16th day of the infection. In terms of infectivity titers, immunofluorescence detected less than one-half the log of a 50% infectious dose of virus. Cells from either spleen or peripheral blood of inoculated mice reacted identically in the fluorescent antibody tests.