CONSTITUTIVE CYTOKINE RELEASE BY SIMIAN T-CELL LYMPHOTROPHIC VIRUS TYPE I(STLV-I) AND HUMAN T-CELL LYMPHOTROPHIC VIRUS TYPES I II (HTLV-I/II) TRANSFORMED-CELL LINES/

Simian T-cell lymphotrophic virus type I (STLV-I) and human T-cell lym photrophic virus types I/II (HTLV-I/II) contain the tax gene which can transactivate the transcription of viral and cellular genes including several cytokines. These investigations used two STLV-I and four diff erent HTLV-I/II transformed cell lines to quantitate constitutive cyto kine release, p24 antigen production, and to correlate gag p24 antigen and cytokine release. These investigations are the first to report 1) quantitative comparison of constitutive release of multiple cytokines by several STLV-I and HTLV-I/II transformed cell lines and to determi ne the cytokines constitutively released by STLV-I transformed cell li nes as IL-6, b-FGF, and GM-CSF (and TNF-P, and PDGF in a higher viral producing line); 2) statistically significant differences in levels of cytokines produced by STLV-I and HTLV-I/II transformed cell lines, de pendent on the method of results quantification; and 3) a correlation between levels of STLV-I and HTLV-I/II and gag p24 antigen production and cytokine production.