1986 Volume 27 Issue 9 Pages 1583-1589
Seventy-six carriers of human T-cell leukemia virus type I (HTLV-I), who live in Nagasaki city and its neighborhood, were examined for morphology of peripheral lymphocyte and expression of adult T-cell leukemia-cell-associated antigen (ATLA) in shortterm culture of peripheral mononuclear cells. “Abnormal” lymphocytes with nuclear irregularity such as indentation, convolution and segmentation were observed in 0∼10% (mean, 3.1%) of 100 lymphocytes in 1984. The “abnormal” lymphocytes in this series of subjects ranged between 0∼11% (mean, 2.4%) 2 years before the present study. The percentage of “abnormal” lymphocytes increased in 38 carriers, decreased in 26, and remained unchanged in 12 over the 2-year period.
In 46 (52.6%) of 76 HTLV-I carriers, ATLA was detected. ATLA-positive carriers showed significantly higher frequency of “abnormal” lymphocytes in the peripheral blood than ATLA-negative carriers (mean, 3.8% vs. 2.4%, p<0.05).
Southern blotting analysis revealed monoclonal integration of HTLV-I proviral DNA in 2 and random integration in 10 out of 18 subjects examined, who had high frequency of “abnormal” lymphocytes in the present study. Two subjects with monoclonal integration of HTLV-I provirus appear to have already progressed from HTLV-I carrier to preleukemic state of adult T-cell leukemia (pre-ATL).
