Immunoglobulin classes of antibody for human T-lymphotropic virus type-I (HTLV-I) in healthy donors and HTLV-I-associated disorders.
Healthy blood donors, patients with adult T-cell leukemia (ATL) and HTLV-I-associated myelopathy (HAM) and recipients of unscreened blood (SR) who had seroconverted and were followed-up for more than 2 years were examined for HTLV-I antibodies of immunoglobulin G (IgG) and M(IgM) classes. The overall infection rate in donors was 4.9%, as determined by screening with a particle agglutination method (PA). The rate increased with increasing age. Positive sera with a low titer in the PA test (1/16, 1/32 and 1/64) contained IgM antibodies in 32.5% (titer 1/16) to 36.1% (titer 1/64) of the cases, but IgG antibodies were detected in only 5.6% of the sera with a titer of 1/16 and in 36.1% of the sera with a titer of 1/64. Conversely, in high titer sera (1/128 or higher) IgG antibodies were almost always detectable (99.0%) and IgM antibodies less frequently (25.5%). Sera from acute, chronic and pre-ATL, HAM and SR patients contained IgG antibodies in high titer in all cases. The incidence of IgM antibodies was 7.7, 30.0, 53.3, 72.3, and 77.8%, respectively. IgM antibodies were demonstrated repeatedly in some cases who were followed up for a year. Only IgM antibodies from HAM patients occurred in high titers and had strong reactivity to the p24 antigens of HTLV-I in Western blot testing. It is concluded that it is important to detect IgM antibodies not only in primary infections but also in persistent infections of HTLV-I.
Kamihira
S
S
Blood Transfusion Service, Nagasaki University Hospital, Japan.
Sohda
H
H
Oyakawa
N
N
Moriuti
Y
Y
Momita
S
S
Ikeda
S
S
Yamada
Y
Y
Ichimaru
M
M
Kinosita
K
K
Okuda
H
H
D000293:Adolescent; D000328:Adult; D000367:Age Factors; D002648:Child; D004797:Enzyme-Linked Immunosorbent Assay; D005500:Follow-Up Studies; D015481:HTLV-I Antibodies / Q000145:classification*; D015490:HTLV-I Infections / Q000276:immunology* / Q000517:prevention & control; D006801:Humans; D007074:Immunoglobulin G / Q000276:immunology; D007075:Immunoglobulin M / Q000276:immunology; D007136:Immunoglobulins / Q000145:classification*; D015459:Leukemia-Lymphoma, Adult T-Cell / Q000276:immunology*; D008403:Mass Screening; D008875:Middle Aged
D015481:HTLV-I Antibodies; D007074:Immunoglobulin G; D007075:Immunoglobulin M; D007136:Immunoglobulins