Document 3178
 DOCN  M94A3178
 TI    Rat model of HTLV-I infection--morphological study of HAM rat disease.
 DT    9412
 AU    Abe M; Fukatsu R; Seto K; Tomaru U; Ohya O; Kasai T; Yamashita I; Ikeda
       H; Wakisaka A; Yoshiki T; Dept. Pathol., Hokkaido Univ. Sch. Med.,
       Japan.
 SO    Int Conf AIDS. 1994 Aug 7-12;10(1):135 (abstract no. PA0160). Unique
       Identifier : AIDSLINE ICA10/94369397
 AB    OBJECTIVE: To analyse mechanisms involved in the development of
       HTLV-I-associated diseases, animal models have long been needed. Here we
       show a rat model of HAM/TSP in humans, designated as HAM rat disease,
       which develops a chronic progressive myelopathy associated with HTLV-I
       infection after 16 months of incubation. METHODS: 1 x 10(7) cells of
       MT-2, an immortalized human T lymphocyte cell line producing HTLV-I,
       were inoculated into newborn or 16 week-old WKAH rats. They were
       chronologically sacrificed and spinal cord and peripheral nerve tissues
       were histologically and ultrastructurally examined. RESULTS: They showed
       gait disturbance and hind leg paraparesis 16 months after infection.
       Pathological alterations of HAM rat disease were mainly confined to
       marginal areas of white matter of the spinal cord. Vacuolation,
       macrophage infiltration, and demyelination were observed in the affected
       lesion. We observed some apoptotic cell death of the oligodendrocytes
       and Schwann cells with condensed nucleus and phagocytosis of apoptotic
       bodies by macrophages. DISCUSSION AND CONCLUSIONS: Apoptosis of the
       oligodendrocytes and Schwann cells mediated by HTLV-I infection may be
       the primary cause of HAM rat disease, although the precise mechanism of
       apoptosis is not known at present. This HAM rat disease model will aid
       in investgating the pathogenesis of the demyelinating process of HAM/TSP
       in humans and other retrovirus-induced central nervous diseases such as
       HIV-induced vacuolar myelopathy.
 DE    Animal  Apoptosis  Cell Line, Transformed  Disease Models, Animal  Human
       HTLV-I/GROWTH & DEVELOPMENT  HTLV-I
       Infections/PATHOLOGY/*PHYSIOPATHOLOGY  Macrophages/PATHOLOGY
       Oligodendroglia/PATHOLOGY  Phagocytosis  Rats  Spinal Cord/PATHOLOGY
       T-Lymphocytes  MEETING ABSTRACT

       SOURCE: National Library of Medicine.  NOTICE: This material may be
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