Heightened transmigrating activity of CD4-positive T cells through reconstituted basement membrane in patients with human T-lymphotropic virus type I-associated myelopathy.
We investigated the transmigrating activity of peripheral blood T cells of patients with human T-lymphotropic virus type I-associated myelopathy (HAM) through reconstituted basement membrane. The transmigrating activity of CD4+ T cells of HAM patients was increased significantly in comparison to that of anti-HTLV-I-seropositive carriers and HTLV-I-seronegative controls. However, the migrating activity of CD8+ T cells was not significantly different in HAM patients and controls. The activity of aminopeptidase-N in peripheral blood T cells of HAM patients also was increased significantly, as compared to that of controls. In addition, HTLV-I proviral load in transmigrating CD4+ T cells of HAM patients was increased significantly (two- to eight-fold), compared to that in nontransmigrating CD4+ cells. By contrast, no significant difference in HTLV-I proviral load was found between transmigrating and nontransmigrating CD4+ cells of HTLV-I-seropositive carriers, although copy numbers of HTLV-I proviral load were very low in them. The heightened transmigrating activity of CD4+ cells from HAM patients through reconstituted basement membrane is based on the increased activity of aminopeptidase-N. Collectively, these findings suggest that HTLV-I-infected CD4+ T cells play an important role in the early stage of the pathogenesis of HAM.
Furuya
T
T
First Department of Internal Medicine, Nagasaki University School of Medicine, Japan.
Nakamura
T
T
Shirabe
S
S
Nishiura
Y
Y
Tsujino
A
A
Goto
H
H
Nakane
S
S
Eguchi
K
K
Nakamura
H
H
Nagataki
S
S
D000328:Adult; D000368:Aged; D001485:Basement Membrane / Q000473:pathology*; D015496:CD4-Positive T-Lymphocytes / Q000276:immunology / Q000473:pathology*; D002465:Cell Movement / Q000276:immunology*; D005260:Female; D006801:Humans; D008297:Male; D008567:Membranes, Artificial; D008875:Middle Aged; D015493:Paraparesis, Tropical Spastic / Q000276:immunology* / Q000473:pathology
D008567:Membranes, Artificial