Cellular and virological investigations of the BAL cells from the patients with HTLV-1 associated bronchopneumonopathy (HAB)

Abstract

We performed bronchoalveolar lavage (BAL) in 30 HTLV-1 carriers. They include 17 HTLV-1 associated myelopathy (HAM) patients with chest X-ray abnormality (8 cases) and without chest X-ray abnormality (9 cases) and 13 non-HAM HTLV-1 carriers with pulmonary involvement. We then investigated the immunologic aspects of the cells obtained from BAL. Increased % lymphocyte was observed in 60% and increased neutrophil was observed in 50% of the patients respectively. Lymphocyte surface analysis used monoclonal antibodies revealed that increased lymphocyte were T-lymphocytes.
It seems that CD4⁺T lymphocyte appears to be dominant in the case with manifest chest X-ray abnormalities. HTLV-1 antigen positive lymphocytes were detected by indirect immunofluorescent method used monoclonal antibody, GIN-14 (anti-p19) and F-10 (anti-gp21) in the BAL cell culture. Moreover significant high immune responsiveness against HTLV-1 was observed in BAL cells obtained from HAM patients with chest X-ray abnormalities. These observations suggest that the pulmonary involvement in HTLV-1 carrier may relate to HTLV-1 infection and immune responsiveness against HTLV-1 in the lung.