| Research Abstract |
Immunoelectron microscopic studies of HTLV-producing cells revealed that T-cell receptor (TCR) and its subunit was expressed incompletely, meaning the functional defect of T cells producing HTLV. In fact, TCRα/β diminished markedly in cultured HTLV-producing cells, lacking TCRα subunit almost completely, but retaining TCRβ subunit. Then, HHV-8 production could be inducible in primary effusion lymphoma (PEL) cells, with TPA treatment, exhibiting fine structure of HHV-8 in comparison with other kinds of HHV, such as 4, 5, and 7 types. As for HHV-6, generally it was difficult to observe its fine structure, because of the difficulty to find out mature particles in cultured cells, even containing viral genomes. In MT-4 cells producing HTLV-I, HHV-6 viral protein expression was definitely observed after infection with HHV-6 in vitro, although lytic infection. Then, electron microscopic observation clarified the particle production of intranuclear, immature and extracellular mature particles. In this observation, there suggested two processes to be mature particles, to pass through the nuclear pore or get the inner nuclear membrane as the viral envelope. In reflecting these processes, there detected two types of mature particles, with or without intermediate layer in the tegment. In parallel with those studies, the overexpressions of cell cycle regulating proteins or some oncogene or suppressor oncogene products were also investigated in human cancers in order to further examination of viral or viral-related proteins in HTLV and/or HHV producers.
|
