Common site of integration of HTLV in cells of three patients with mature T-cell leukaemia-lymphoma

Abstract

Human T-cell leukaemia-lymphoma virus (HTLV) was first isolated in the United States from a patient with an aggressive form of cutaneous T-cell lymphoma¹ (CTCL) and was later found associated with clusters of adult T-cell leukaemia–lymphomas (ATL) in various parts of the world, including Japan and the Caribbean^2–8. Leukaemic cells of the HTLV-positive patients seem to be clonal expansions of single infected cells since the provirus(es) are found at the same sites in a given patient^9,10. In avian leukosis virus-induced B-cell lymphomas, the provirus very frequently integrates at several discrete sites in a common domain near the cellular gene, c-myc, that it activates^11,12 and it has been speculated that the same would hold true for other chronic leukaemia viruses. We report here that cultured cells from two US patients with CTCL and fresh leukaemia cells of a Japanese patient with ATL contained an HTLV provirus integrated at the same site. In addition, a cord blood T-lymphocyte cell line established by co-cultivation with one of the two HTLV-positive CTCL cell lines¹³ also contained HTLV provirus contiguous with the same flanking cellular sequences. Ten other HTLV-positive cell samples did not show integration of HTLV at this site, suggesting that there is more than one discrete site of HTLV integration in tumour cells.