Research on Human Retrovirus as a Pathogenic Agents and its Treatment.

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Human T lymphocyte virus type I (HTLV-I) is associated with a number of diverse clinical disorders. To investigate the pathogenesis of the HTLV-I related disease, rats carrying HTLV-I (HAM rats) and those transgened with env-pX gene (env-pX rats) were investigated.1) HAM rats develop a chronic progressive myelopathy after long incubation periods. The myelopathy is caused by demyelination based on apoptosis of oligodendrocytes. Microglias were infected with HTLV-I.High expression of pX mRNA and TNF-alpha is observed before apoptosis in the diseased spinal cord, while low of bcl-2.2) env-pX rats develop a wide spectrum of collagen vascular and autoimmune diseases. Peripheral T lymphocytes of these rats express high amount of CD80/86 and ICAM-I showing high response to various antigens. The T lymphocytes infiltrated to the diseased organ/tissu were oligoclonal. Bone marrow transplantation experiments suggest that at least 3 types of pathogenic process are concerned to develop diseases.3) Ick promotor env-pX rats show lymphoid tissue specific expression of pX mRNA.They develop thymomas but not ATL until now.