Constitutive expression of various chemokine genes in human T-cell lines infected with human T-cell leukemia virus type 1: Role of the viral transactivator Tax

✍ Scribed by Masataka Baba; Toshio Imai; Tetsuya Yoshida; Osamu Yoshie

• Publisher: John Wiley and Sons
• Year: 1996
• Tongue: French
• Weight: 767 KB
• Volume: 66
• Category: Article
• ISSN: 0020-7136
• DOI: 10.1002/(sici)1097-0215(19960328)66:1<124::aid-ijc21>3.0.co;2-c

✦ Synopsis

We examined the genetic expression of 2 CXC chemokines (IL-8, IP-lo), 5 CC chemokines (MCP-I, MIP-la, MIP-IP, RANTES, 1309) and I C chemokine (SCM-I /lymphotactin/ ATAC) in various human T-cell lines. By Northern blot analysis, HTLV-I -positive T-cell lines were found to express a number of chemokine genes at variable levels and in different combinations. However, none of the chemokine genes was expressed in HTLV-I -negative T-cell tines. We further confirmed secretion of 3 chemokines (IL-8, MIP-la and RANTES) by some HTLV-Ipositive T-cell lines. To examine the role of the HTLV-Iencoded transactivator Tax in the induction of these chemokine genes, we used JPX-9 and JPX-M, which were stably transformed with tax and non-functional tax, respectively, under the control of a metallothionein promoter. Induction of tax in JPX-9 with Cd2+ was accompanied by rapid induction of IL-8, IP-10, MIP-la, MIP-Ip, 1309 and SCM-I as determined by reverse transcription PCR. No such induction was seen in JPX-M. We thus suggest that Tax is, at least in part, responsible for constitutive expression of certain chemokine genes in HTLV-Iinfected T cells. Aberrant production of various chemokines by HTLV-I -infected T cells may impact on the pathophysiology of HTLV-I -associated diseases.