Kirsten murine sarcoma virus abolishes interferon gamma-induced class II but not class I major histocompatibility antigen expression in a murine fibroblast line

The effect of infecting fibroblasts with Kirsten murine sarcoma virus/murine leukemia virus (Ki-MSV/MLV) on constitutive and IFN-gamma-induced H-2 antigen expression was investigated. The fibroblasts used were two established cell lines (C3H10T1/2 and BALB/c3T3) and fresh embryo fibroblasts from C3H mice. Class I antigens were expressed constitutively by BALB/c3T3; infection with MLV, MSV or the two together had little effect on this constitutive expression. Class I antigens (H-2K, H-2D) were strongly induced on all three types of fibroblast by rIFN-gamma, and infection had little effect on this. None of the fibroblasts expressed constitutively detectable levels of class II antigen; however, C3H10T1/2 fibroblasts could be induced for both H-2A and H-2E by IFN-gamma. Infection of C3H10T1/2 with helper-free Ki-MSV, or MSV together with MLV, completely abolished this induction of class II antigens, while infection with MLV alone had little effect, implying that the abolition of class II induction was due to genomic regions of Ki-MSV not shared with Ki-MLV, probably the v-Ki-ras gene.