Human T - cell Leukemia Virus Type I t a x h e x DNA and RNA in Cutaneous T - cell Lymphoma

Peripheral blood mononuclear cells (PBMCs) and T-cell lines from patients with Sezary syndrome (SS) and skin lesions from patients with mycosis fungoides (MF) were examined by polymerase chain reaction (PCR) for DNA sequences homologous to the human retroviruses human T-lymphotropic virus (HTLV)-I and -11. Results obtained using primers and probes from the taxhex region of HTLV-I indicate that 72% (18/25) of SS patients PBMCs, 8OYo (20/25) of T-cell lines established from SS-PBMC, and 30% (3/10) of skin lesions from MF patients were positive for HTLV-I taxhex region DNA. Sequence analysis of the 127-bp fragment amplified by the tax/rexprimers from 4 of these individuals was found to be identical to that in prototypic HTLV-I. Negative results were obtained using primers and probes from the HTLV-I