Transmission of HTLV-I by blood transfusion and its prevention by passive
immunization in rabbits
R Kataoka, N Takehara, Y Iwahara, T Sawada, Y Ohtsuki, Y Dawei, H Hoshino and I Miyoshi
Department of Medicine, Kochi Medical School, Japan.
To determine the minimum volume of blood required to transmit human T- cell
leukemia virus type I (HTLV-I), heparinized blood was collected from a
virus-infected female rabbit and aliquots of 10, 5, 1, 0.5, 0.1, and 0.01
mL were transfused into groups of two male rabbits each. All 10 rabbits
transfused with 10 to 0.1 mL and 1 of 2 rabbits transfused with 0.01 mL
seroconverted for HTLV-I after 2 to 4 weeks. HTLV-I- producing lymphoid
cell lines of recipient origin were established from one seroconverted
rabbit of each aliquot group. To determine the ability of passive
immunization to protect against HTLV-I infection, two groups of three
rabbits were first transfused with 5 mL of blood from the same
virus-infected rabbit and then infused after 24 or 48 hours with 10 mL of
HTLV-I immune globulin (77 mg/mL of IgG) prepared from seropositive healthy
persons. None of the 24-hour immunization group seroconverted for HTLV-I
during the observation period of six months; however, all of the 48-hour
immunization group became seropositive after 2 to 4 weeks. These results
indicate that HTLV-I can be transmitted with as little as 0.01 mL of
virus-infected blood, and that passive immunization is effective in
preventing cell-to-cell infection of HTLV-I when given within 24 hours of
transfusion of virus- infected blood.
Volume 76,
Issue 8,
pp. 1657-1661,
10/15/1990
Copyright © 1990 by The American Society of Hematology
