Absence of human T-lymphotropic virus type I in Japanese patients with
cutaneous T-cell lymphoma
A Kikuchi, T Nishikawa, Y Ikeda and K Yamaguchi
Department of Dermatology, Keio University School of Medicine, Tokyo,
Japan.
Cutaneous T-cell lymphoma (CTCL) is a disease entity characterized by a
primary sporadic T-cell proliferation in the skin. Human T-lymphotropic
virus type 1 (HTLV-1) is a retrovirus that causes adult T-cell
leukemia/lymphoma. Recently, several authors have detected the HTLV-1
genome in genomic DNA from patients with CTCL and proposed a causal
relation of HTLV-1 to CTCL. However, it remains controversial because these
studies contain some problems in materials used to detect HTLV-1. We
investigated both fresh and cultured T lymphocytes (128 specimens) derived
from 50 Japanese patients with CTCL, where HTLV-1 is endemic, by using
polymerase chain reaction with four sets of primers including gag, pol,
env, and pX regions of HTLV-1 to elucidate the relationship between HTLV-1
and CTCL in Japan. However, none of the 128 DNA specimens revealed positive
for HTLV-1 in contrast to the previous studies. We conclude that CTCL,
which does not include HTLV-1, is present although the pathogenesis of CTCL
may be different by areas or races.
Volume 89,
Issue 5,
pp. 1529-1532,
03/01/1997
Copyright © 1997 by The American Society of Hematology
