Transformation of breast milk macrophages by HTLV-I: implications for HTLV-I transmission via breastfeeding.
Human T cell leukemia virus type I (HTLV-I), a causative agent of adult T-cell leukemia (ATL), is transmitted from mother to child predominantly by breastfeeding. The source of HTLV-I-infected cells in breast milk has been thought to be T cells, however, the majority of cells in breast milk are CD14(+) macrophages but not CD3(+) T lymphocytes, and no data are available regarding HTLV-I transmission through breast milk macrophages (BrMMpsi). To explore the potential of BrMMpsi as a possible source of infection in mother to child transmission (MTCT) of HTLV-I, an immortalized cell line (HTLV-BrMMpsi) has been established from BrMMpsi by infection with HTLV-I. HTLV-BrMMpsi retained macrophage characteristics and did not express a complete dendritic cell (DC) phenotype; nevertheless, HTLV-BrMMpsi efficiently promoted T cell proliferation in primary allogeneic mixed lymphocyte reaction (MLR) like DC. Moreover, HTLV-I infection could be transmitted from HTLV-BrMMpsi to activated T cells in the peripheral blood. These findings suggested that BrMMpsi might be an appropriate HTLV-I reservoir involved in MTCT transmission via breastfeeding.
Takeuchi
Hodaka
H
Department of Microbiology and Immunology, Nippon Medical School, Tokyo, Japan.
Takahashi
Megumi
M
Norose
Yoshihiko
Y
Takeshita
Toshiyuki
T
Fukunaga
Yoshitaka
Y
Takahashi
Hidemi
H
D000328:Adult; D001942:Breast Feeding; D002461:Cell Line, Transformed; D049109:Cell Proliferation; D002472:Cell Transformation, Viral; D018920:Coculture Techniques; D003126:Colostrum / Q000821:virology*; D005260:Female; D015490:HTLV-I Infections / Q000635:transmission*; D015368:Human T-lymphotropic virus 1; D006801:Humans; D007231:Infant, Newborn; D015459:Leukemia-Lymphoma, Adult T-Cell / Q000378:metabolism / Q000821:virology*; D008264:Macrophages / Q000378:metabolism / Q000821:virology*; D008895:Milk, Human / Q000821:virology*; D011247:Pregnancy; D013601:T-Lymphocytes / Q000378:metabolism