Karyotypes of 26 human lymphocyte cultures, infected or noninfected with human T-lymphotropic virus type I (HTLV-I), with or without Epstein-Barr virus infection, were analyzed by G-banding. Hypodiploidy and structural abnormalities were seen more frequently in HTLV-I-infected cultures (30%) than in virus noninfected cultures (10%) propagated for less than 200 days. In all of six immortalized c...

HTLV-1 infection has a worldwide distribution but the majority of patients infected by the virus are in Africa, Central and South American and in the Southern of Japan [1]. The HTLV-1 associated myelopathy or tropical spastic paraparesis (HAM/TSP) and Adult T-cell leukemia (ATL) are the main diseases related to the virus but they occur in less than 5% of infected subjects [2]. However, nowadays...

Human T-cell lymphotropic virus type I (HTLV-I) associated adult T-cell leukemia/lymphoma (ATLL) occurs endemically in southwestern Japan, the Caribbean, and West Africa, but occurs sporadically in most of the rest of the world. However, because ATLL and non-HTLV-I associated T-cell neoplasms share overlapping clinicopathologic features, the prevalence of ATLL in nonendemic regions is unknown. ...

In this issue of Blood, Bellon and Nicot describe an elegant mechanism used by HTLV-I to up-regulate telomerase gene expression and function in the absence of the viral tax oncoprotein. A dult T-cell leukemia was first reported as an entity in Blood in 1977. 1 Three years later, Gallo et al identified the human T-cell leukemia/lymphoma virus-I (HTLV-I), a deltaretrovirus, as the causative agent...

Human T-cell leukemia virus type I (HTLV-1) is the etiologic agent of adult T-cell leukemia and lymphoma and HTLV-1-associated myelopathy-tropical spastic paraparesis. We examined whether HTLV could productively infect human hematopoietic progenitor cells. CD34+ cells were enriched from human fetal liver cells and cocultivated with cell lines transformed with HTLV-1 and -2. HTLV-1 infection was...

Abbreviations: ATLL, adult T-cells leukemia-lymphoma; BAL, bronchoalveolar lavage; bp, base pair; DLco, pulmonary diffusing capacity for carbon monoxide; HAB, HTLV-I associated bronchopneumopathy; HABA, HTLV-I associated bronchiolo-alveolar disorder; HAM, HTLV-I associated myelopathy; HTLV-I, human Tcell lymphotropic virus type I; LDH, lactic acid dehydrogenase; PBMC, peripheral blood mononucle...

We studied DNA sequences homologous to HTLV-1 in peripheral blood mononuclear cells (PBMC) of 30 patients with neurological disorders in Kyushu, where HTLV-1 is highly endemic. The regions of HTLV-1 amplified by means of polymerase chain reaction (PCR) included U3, U5, gag, pol, env and pX. Our system specifically detected HTLV-1 sequences only from HTLV-1-positive cells and was sufficiently se...

BACKGROUND Individuals with human T-cell lymphotrophic virus type-1 (HTLV-1)/HIV-1 coinfection have been demonstrated to undergo CD4+ lymphocytosis even in the face of immunodeficiency and increased vulnerability to opportunistic pathogens that can lead to poor prognosis. OBJECTIVE This study investigated the prevalence as well as the effects of HIV-1/HTLV-1 coinfection on CD4+ cell counts, r...

Adult T-cell leukemia (ATL) is an aggressive T-cell malignancy caused by human T-cell leukemia virus type I (HTLV-1) infection and often occurs in HTLV-1-endemic areas, such as southwestern Japan, the Caribbean islands, Central and South America, Intertropical Africa, and Middle East. To date, many epidemiological studies have been conducted to investigate the incidence of ATL among general pop...