Infection of human T-lymphotropic virus type I to astrocytes in vitro with induction of the class II major histocompatibility complex.
To clarify the pathogenesis of human T-lymphotropic virus type I (HTLV-I)-associated myelopathy (HAM), we examined whether HTLV-I infects normal human glial cells in vitro with induction of the major histocompatibility complex (HMC) class II antigen by immunofluorescence method. It was found that about 10% of astrocytes were infected with HTLV-I with induction of class II MHC antigen. Fluorescence-conjugated HTLV-I was adsorbed to 10% of astrocytes. On the contrary, there was no class II MHC antigen expression and very few HTLV-I infection on oligodendrocytes. We speculated that in patients with HAM, HTLV-I-specific, MHC class II antigen restricted, activated CD4+ cells could damage the MHC class II antigen + HTLV-I-infected astrocytes, leading to the disturbance of blood-brain barrier and to the destructive lesion in the central nervous system.
Hirayama
M
M
Second Department of Internal Medicine, Fukui Medical School, Japan.
Miyadai
T
T
Yokochi
T
T
Sato
K
K
Kubota
T
T
Iida
M
M
Fujiki
N
N
D001253:Astrocytes / Q000166:cytology / Q000276:immunology / Q000382:microbiology*; D001921:Brain / Q000166:cytology / Q000276:immunology / Q000382:microbiology; D002478:Cells, Cultured; D000949:Histocompatibility Antigens Class II / Q000378:metabolism*; D015368:Human T-lymphotropic virus 1 / Q000472:pathogenicity*; D006801:Humans; D066298:In Vitro Techniques; D009836:Oligodendroglia / Q000276:immunology / Q000382:microbiology
D000949:Histocompatibility Antigens Class II