TRANSMISSION OF HUMAN T-CELL LEUKEMIA-VIRUS TYPE-1 TO MICE

Human T-cell leukemia virus type 1 (HTLV-1) is associated with adult T cell leukemia/lymphoma, HTLVI associated myelopathy/tropical spastic paraparesis, and other diseases. For prevention of the transmission of HTLV-1 and manifestation of these diseases, a small-animal model, esp ecially a mouse model, would be useful. We injected HTLV-1-producing T cells (MT-2) intraperitoneally into neonatal C3H/HeJ mice. While the antibody against HTLV-1 antigens was not detectable in C3H/HeJ mice, H TLV-1 provirus was frequently detected in the spleen, lymph nodes, and thymus by PCR. HTLV-1 provirus was present at the level of 0 to 30 mo lecules in 10(5) spleen cells at the age of 15 weeks. In addition, a 5 9-bp flanking sequence of the HTLV-1 integration site was amplified fr om the spleen DNA by linker-mediated PCR and was confirmed to be deriv ed from the mouse genome. HTLV-1 provirus was found in the T cell frac tion of the mouse spleen. These results indicate that mice can be infe cted by HTLV-1 and could serve as an animal model for the study of HTL V-1 infection and its pathogenesis in vivo.