Studies on the Mechanism and Epidemiology of Mother-To-Child HTLV-I Transmission by the Use of PCR (Polymerase Chain Reaction) Method.

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These studies aim at investigating what is the true mechanism of mother-to-child HTLV-I transmission and real feature of the epidemiology and establishing preventive measures against mother-to-child transmission and the best feeding for the infants. The results are as follows :1. A method for detecting proviral DNA in the lymphocytes of colostrum from HTLV-I carriers with the PCR was developed, by which proviral DNA in the peripheral lymphocytes from carriers could also be detected and semi-quantitative assay for provirus copy number was established.2. A rapid and simplified method for purifying DNA from whole blood was established.3. The seroprevalence of HTLV-I in children born to carrier-mothers was surveyed from the blood sample of different feeding group. As a results, the seroprevalence in a normal breast feeding group was 6.1%, 7.7% in a group fed with freez-thawed breast milk and none in a bottle-fed group. The copy number of the HTLV-I provirus in the peripheral lymphocytes of … More the carrier-mothers was most correlated to the seroconversion of the infants who received breast milk from them. From this result, the semi-quantitative assay fro provirus copy number mentioned above, was modified and a quantitative assay was established. P40^<tax> antibody-positivity of the carrier-mothers was relevant to the seroconversion rate in children, which was not significant statistically.4. The difference between the seroconversion rate for the normal breast feeding group and others was statistically insignificant.5. The overall prevalence of HTLV-I antibodies in pregnant women was 6.5% in Okinawa. The antibody-positive rate was significantly higher in multiparous patients than in primiparous patients(p < 0.05). From the results above, the seroconversion rate for the normal breast feeding group was relatively low compared to the reports by other investigators, which cast some doubt on the policy for totally stopping the breast feeding. The copy number of the HTLV-I provirus in the peripheral lymphocytes of the carrier mothers was most correlated to the seroconversion of the infants who received breast milk from them, which can be a useful index for the mother-to-child transmission. Less