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The search for a suitable and reliable animal model for human AIDS that is easy to use on a large scale continues. Here we describe a new condition in mice that closely resembles human AIDS, namely, chronic lymphoproliferation with dramatic depletion of CD4-positive cells, progressive impairment of the immune responses, and Kaposi's sarcoma-like tumors or terminal B-lymphomas. The AIDS-like disease was primarily induced by mating BALB/c female mice to C57BL/6 males during a 1-year period (7-10 allogeneic pregnancies) followed by immunization with paternal lymphocytes. The disease is sexually and vertically transmissible, transferrable by cell-free plasma and is associated with autoimmune reactions to major histocompatibility complex antigens and CD4 cells. We hope that this becomes a model for studying the mechanisms of AIDS immunopathogenesis and immune-based treatment approaches.

It is now quite evident that suppression of the host's immune reactivity leads to failure of anticells also show strong specific antigenicity (Deichman and Kluchareva, 1964; Sjogren, 1965). tumour resistance and to stimulation of viral oncogenesis. These data suggest that the development of virus-induced tumours under natural or experimental conditions is either caused by depression of immune reactivity or by immune selection of weakly antigenic tiimour cell variants. Nevertheless, the data obtained in experiments with polyoma and SV40 viruses contradict this It seems likely that the factor which determines the '' to be or not to be " of a virus-induced tumour is not only the immune reactivity of the host as a whole, but-of greater importancethe relationship between humoral and cellular immune responses and the interplay and reciprocal sequence of reactions of this type.assumption : the tumour-bearing animals exhibit a high level of specific immunity and the tumour To test this hypothesis we performed the following investigations with the two oncogenic viruses:

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