Increased number of circulating HTLV-1 infected cells in peripheral blood mononuclear cells of HTLV-1 uveitis patients: a quantitative polymerase chain reaction study.
OBJECTIVE
This study aimed to characterise the status of viral infection in patients with HTLV-1 uveitis (HU) by quantifying the circulating HTLV-1 infected cells in the peripheral blood.


METHODS
Genomic DNA samples of peripheral blood mononuclear cells (PBMC) were obtained from 25 patients with HU, 14 patients with tropical spastic paraparesis/HTLV-1 associated myelopathy (TSP/HAM), and 21 asymptomatic carriers of HTLV-1. Quantitative polymerase chain reaction (PCR) of the gag region of HTLV-1 provirus DNA was performed on these DNA samples. To confirm the PCR, genomic Southern blot hybridisation was performed to identify integrated HTLV-1 provirus. This procedure detected a few percent of HTLV-1 infected cells in the PBMC.


RESULTS
Most of the HU patients had a significantly increased number of circulating HTLV-1 infected cells (mean (SD) 3.84% (4.45%) of the PBMC), whereas the percentage of infected cells in most asymptomatic carriers was less than 1% (0.54% (1.11%)). Most of the TSP/HAM patients also had a relatively high percentage (11.63% (7.67%)). The differences among these three groups were highly significant by the Mann-Whitney U test.


CONCLUSIONS
The results suggested that the increase in the number of HTLV-1 infected cells is one base for the development of inflammatory HU lesions, as it is for TSP/HAM.
Ono
A
A
Department of Pathology, University of Tokyo, Japan.
Mochizuki
M
M
Yamaguchi
K
K
Miyata
N
N
Watanabe
T
T
D000328:Adult; D001483:Base Sequence; D015342:DNA Probes / Q000737:chemistry; D004279:DNA, Viral / Q000032:analysis; D015828:Eye Infections, Viral / Q000821:virology*; D005260:Female; D016679:Genome, Viral; D015490:HTLV-I Infections / Q000821:virology*; D015368:Human T-lymphotropic virus 1 / Q000235:genetics / Q000302:isolation & purification*; D006801:Humans; D018655:Lymphocyte Count; D008297:Male; D008875:Middle Aged; D008969:Molecular Sequence Data; D009693:Nucleic Acid Hybridization; D015493:Paraparesis, Tropical Spastic / Q000276:immunology / Q000821:virology; D016133:Polymerase Chain Reaction; D011533:Proviruses / Q000235:genetics; D013601:T-Lymphocytes / Q000276:immunology / Q000821:virology*; D014605:Uveitis / Q000276:immunology / Q000821:virology*
D015342:DNA Probes; D004279:DNA, Viral