Concern for transmission of human T-ceII lymphotropic virus, type 1 (HTLV-1 ) infection to recipients of infected cellular blood products has prompted development of tests to eliminate blood units with HTLV-I antibodies. Most hemophilic men from the United States became infected with human immunodeficiency virus (HIV) before HIV donor screening and before blood products were processed to inacti...

Adult T-cell leukemia (ATL), an aggressive neoplasm of mature helper T cells, is etiologically linked with human T lymphotropic virus type I (HTLV-1). After infection, HTLV-I randomly integrates its provirus into chromosomal DNA. Since ATL is the clonal proliferation of HTLV-I-infected T lymphocytes, molecular methods facilitate the detection of clonal integration of HTLV-I provirus in ATL cell...

High mobility group box 1 (HMGB1) functions as a chromatin-associated nuclear protein and an extracellular signaling molecule. The concentration of HMGB1 protein and the expression of HMGB1 mRNA were analyzed by ELISA and polymerase chain reaction (PCR), respectively. The present study reports high plasma HMGB1 levels in patients with adult T-cell leukemia [ATL; which is caused by infection wit...

The vertical transmission of the T-cell lymphotropic virus type I (HTLV-1) occurs predominantly through breast-feeding [2]. The infection can be transmitted through sexual contact, blood transfusion, and through needle sharing among drug users. Its transmission is active in many areas such as parts of Africa, South and Central America, the Caribbean region, Asia and Melanesia [3]. It is estimat...

We have amplified and sequenced DNA in the envelope (env) and long terminal repeat (LTR) regions of human T-cell lymphotropic virus type I (HTLV-I) proviruses from the peripheral blood of 10 HTLV-I-seropositive patients with tropical spastic paraparesis (TSP) and two patients with adult T-cell leukemia. The aim was to examine variation in these regions and to test the hypothesis that the sequen...