MORPHOLOGICAL AND MOLECULAR BIOLOGICAL STUDIES FOR HTLV-I INFECTION

人T细胞嗜淋巴病毒I型(HTLV-I)是一种RNA病毒，被认为是多种器官和外周血中肿瘤性和非肿瘤性疾病的病因。近年来，HTLV-I与成人T细胞白血病/淋巴瘤(ATLL)等与HTLV-I相关疾病的病理关系日益受到重视。HAM/TSP，已通过基于分子生物学和免疫学的方法得到澄清。然而，该病毒在皮损中的分布和亚细胞定位仍不清楚。因此，我们利用原位杂交和聚合酶链式反应-原位杂交技术，研究HTLV-I感染患者外周血和皮损中病毒的定位。结果表明，HTLV-I基因在健康携带者和ATLL患者皮肤冰冻切片中的淋巴细胞或淋巴细胞中均有表达。ATLL亚型与信号频率之间可能无明显相关性。另一方面，有趣的是，在一些HTLV-I感染者的汗腺上皮细胞中，通过PCR-ISH技术发现了HTLV-I的Tax序列。据我们所知，目前还没有关于HTLV-T感染汗腺上皮的报道。这一发现可能对考虑该病毒引起的感染途径和非肿瘤性疾病的病因学具有重要意义。

Human T-cell lymphotropic virus type I (HTLV-I) is an RNA virus which is considered to be etiologic factor of neoplastic and non-neoplastic disorders in several organs as well as peripheral blood. Recently, pathological relationship between HTLV-I and HTLV-I-related disorders including adult T-cell leukemia/lymphoma (ATLL) and. HAM/TSP, have been clarified by using methods based on molecular biology and immunology. However, distribution and subcellular localization of the virus in lesions remain unclear. Therefore, we aim to investigate a localization of the virus in peripheral blood and the lesional skin from HTLV-I-infected patients by using of in situ hybridization and PCR-in situ hybridization techniques. As results, HTLV-I mRNA were expressed in lymphoid cells or lymphocytes in frozen sections of skin samples from healthy carrier and ATLL patients. There might be no significant correlation between subtype of ATLL and frequency of signals. On the other hand, interestingly, HTLV-I tax sequence was recognized in eccrine sweat gland epithelia in some HTLV-I infected cases by PCR-ISH technique. To the best of our knowledge, there is no report describing HTLV-T infection to sweat gland epithelia. The findings may be important to consider the route of infection and the etiology of non-neoplastic disorder caused by this virus.