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Role of the genetic background of rats in infection by HTLV‐I and HTLV‐II and in the development of associated diseases
Author(s) -
Kazanji Mirdad,
Ibrahim Fera,
Fiette Laurence,
Bomford Robert,
De Thé Guy
Publication year - 1997
Publication title -
international journal of cancer
Language(s) - English
Resource type - Journals
SCImago Journal Rank - 2.475
H-Index - 234
eISSN - 1097-0215
pISSN - 0020-7136
DOI - 10.1002/(sici)1097-0215(19970926)73:1<131::aid-ijc20>3.0.co;2-i
Subject(s) - provirus , peripheral blood mononuclear cell , virology , virus , immunology , biology , inoculation , medicine , gene , in vitro , genetics , genome
Three aspects of the rat model of HTLV‐I/II infection were investigated. (i) The efficacy of HTLV‐I‐transformed rat cell lines in infecting different strains of rats: WKY and Lewis HTLV‐I‐transformed cell lines were injected into adult WKY, Lewis and Brown Norway rats, representing syngeneic and allogeneic combinations. The HTLV‐I provirus was not detected in peripheral‐blood mononuclear cells (PBMC) from these rats 18 weeks after inoculation, showing that HTLV‐I‐transformed rat cells are not suitable for virus challenge in vaccination experiments. Rats inoculated with Lewis HTLV‐I‐transformed cells produced an antibody response to HTLV‐I, which was higher in allogeneic (WKY and Brown Norway) than in syngeneic rats. (ii) The susceptibility of rats to HTLV‐II infection: After human HTLV‐II‐producing cells (MO) were injected into adult WKY rats, the HTLV‐II provirus was detected in PBMC 12 weeks later. Sequencing of a portion of this provirus confirmed its identity with the HTLV‐II from MO cells. (iii) The role of MHC haplotype in susceptibility to neurological disease in rats inoculated as newborns with HTLV‐I: The hypothesis that the RT‐I k haplotype confers susceptibility was tested by inoculating newborn OKA (RT‐I k ), WKY (RT‐I l ), Lewis (RT‐I l ) and Fischer 344 (RT‐I lvl ) rats with human HTLV‐I‐producing cells (MT‐2). Eighteen months later, only the WKY rats showed histological abnormality of the spinal cord, without clinical paralysis. Fischer 344 rats developed cutaneous tumors and OKA rats mammary tumors. The HTLV‐I provirus was not detected in these tumors. Int. J. Cancer 73:131–136, 1997. © 1997 Wiley‐Liss, Inc.