1995 Fiscal Year Final Research Report Summary
Expression mechanism and evidence of tax/rex mRNA in HTLV-1 associated pulmonary disease.
| Project/Area Number |
04454252
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| Research Category |
Grant-in-Aid for General Scientific Research (B)
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| Allocation Type | Single-year Grants |
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| Research Field |
Respiratory organ internal medicine
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| Research Institution | Nagasaki University |
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Principal Investigator |
HARA Kohei Nagasaki Unv. Medicine. Professor, 医学部, 教授 (80039495)
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| Co-Investigator(Kenkyū-buntansha) |
KAKU Mitsuo Nagasaki Unv. Medicine. Associate Professor, 医学部, 講師 (40224357)
KOGA Hironobu Nagasaki Unv. Medicine. Associate Professor, 医学部, 講師 (50225398)
KOHNO Shigeru Nagasaki Unv. Medicine. Associate Professor, 医学部, 講師 (80136647)
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| Project Period (FY) |
1992 – 1994
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| Keywords | HTLV-1 / tax / rex mRNA / gag / pol mRNA / pulmonary disease |
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| Research Abstract |
Human T-lymphotropic virus type I (HTLV-I) is etiological agent of not only adult T-cell leukemia (ATL) but also HTLV-1 associated myelopathy (HAM/TSP) that is inflammatory disease of spinal cord. Accumulating evidences have suggested the involvement of HTLV-I in the inflammatory lesions of various organs including the lung. However, causal relationship between HTLV-I and inflammatory responses in the organs remains to be elucidated. In order to evaluate the expression of HTLV-I and its effects in the lung, we examined the expression of mRNA for the HTLV-I tax/rex and gag/pol gene in fresh bronchoalveolar lavage cells (BALC) and peripheral blood mononuclear cells (PBMC) of 21 seropositive individuals including 5 patients with HAM/TSP,by use of reverse transcription-polymerase chain reaction (RT-PCR). The tax/rex mRNA was more frequently and dominantly detected in BALC than in PBMC.The gag/pol mRNA was more dominantly detected in PBMC than BALC.Twelve of 21 HTLV-1 infected individuals including all 5 HAM/TSP patients showed the expression of tax/rex mRNA in the BALC.The detection of tax/rex mRNA correlated closely with the presence of lymphocytosis accompanied by the elevated proportion of activated T cells in the BALC.The gag/pol mRNA expression was few in BALC than PBMC,and HTLV-1 replication itself was not activated in BALC.Difference of HTLV-1 expression in BALC and PBMC was not correlated with amount of provirus and mutation of viral gene. The characteristic clinical feature among the individuals positive for tax/rex mRNA in BALC was not identified. Our findings indicate a crucial role of viral expression in the inflammatory response of the lung of HTLV-I-infected individuals.
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