PT  - JOURNAL ARTICLE
AU  - A Ono
AU  - M Mochizuki
AU  - K Yamaguchi
AU  - N Miyata
AU  - T Watanabe
TI  - Increased number of circulating HTLV-1 infected cells in peripheral blood mononuclear cells of HTLV-1 uveitis patients: a quantitative polymerase chain reaction study.
AID  - 10.1136/bjo.79.3.270
DP  - 1995 Mar 01
TA  - British Journal of Ophthalmology
PG  - 270--276
VI  - 79
IP  - 3
4099  - http://bjo.bmj.com/content/79/3/270.short
4100  - http://bjo.bmj.com/content/79/3/270.full
SO  - Br J Ophthalmol1995 Mar 01; 79
AB  - AIMS--This study aimed to characterise the status of viral infection in patients with HTLV-1 uveitis (HU) by quantifying the circulating HTLV-1 infected cells in the peripheral blood. METHODS--Genomic DNA samples of peripheral blood mononuclear cells (PBMC) were obtained from 25 patients with HU, 14 patients with tropical spastic paraparesis/HTLV-1 associated myelopathy (TSP/HAM), and 21 asymptomatic carriers of HTLV-1. Quantitative polymerase chain reaction (PCR) of the gag region of HTLV-1 provirus DNA was performed on these DNA samples. To confirm the PCR, genomic Southern blot hybridisation was performed to identify integrated HTLV-1 provirus. This procedure detected a few percent of HTLV-1 infected cells in the PBMC. RESULTS--Most of the HU patients had a significantly increased number of circulating HTLV-1 infected cells (mean (SD) 3.84% (4.45%) of the PBMC), whereas the percentage of infected cells in most asymptomatic carriers was less than 1% (0.54% (1.11%)). Most of the TSP/HAM patients also had a relatively high percentage (11.63% (7.67%)). The differences among these three groups were highly significant by the Mann-Whitney U test. CONCLUSION--The results suggested that the increase in the number of HTLV-1 infected cells is one base for the development of inflammatory HU lesions, as it is for TSP/HAM.