Localization of Human T-Cell Lymphotropic Virus-1 tax Proviral Sequences in Skin Biopsies of Patients with Mycosis Fungoides by in situ Polymerase Chain Reaction

Abstract

The histopathologic diagnosis of mycosis fungoides (MF), even when clinical manifestations of the disease seem convincing, is often tenuous. The observation that practically all patients with MF harbor human T cell lymphotropic virus type I (HTLV-I) proviral sequences in their circulating lymphocytes raised the possibility that such viral footprints could be detected in their cutaneous infiltrates. Application of in situ polymerase chain reaction (PCR) to skin biopsies of 11 of 12 patients demonstrated this assumption to be correct. In addition, cells suspected to be keratinocytes were also positive. None of 10 skin biopsies from a variety of sources used as controls, nor 3 lymph node biopsies from patients with B-cell lymphomas, showed any HTLV proviral sequences on in situ PCR. On the basis of these observations, it is concluded that in situ PCR carried out on skin biopsies of patients with presumptive MF may help to established the diagnosis.

Mycosis fungoides: is it a Borrelia burgdorferi-associated disease?

“…HTLV-1 is found in adult T-cell lymphoma and leukemia, and it has been implicated by several studies in CTCL (Zucker-Franklin and Pancake, 1994;Pancake et al, 1995;Khan et al, 1996). However, others have not been able to confirm these findings (Boni et al, 1996;Wood et al, 1996).…”

Cytomegalovirus seropositivity is significantly associated with mycosis fungoides and Sézary syndrome

“…32 HTLV-1 is found in adult T-cell lymphoma and leukemia, and it has been implicated by several studies in CTCL. [33][34][35] Others have not been able to confirm this finding. 36,37 In this study, all except one of the patients with CTCL had negative HTLV-1 serology studies at baseline.…”

Current views in HTLV-I-associated adult T-cell leukemia/lymphoma

“…Most patients with CTCL are negative for antibodies to the structural proteins of HTLV-I, and thus a causative role for this virus is usually dismissed. However, numerous studies have found HTLV-I-related proviral tax sequence or deleted proviruses in tumor samples from CTCL patients [27][28][29][30][31][32][33][34]. Recently a study on the northeastern coast of Brazil found HTLV-I integrated proviral sequences by southern blot in several mycosis fungoides-like cutaneous lymphomas, and CD30 + largecell anaplastic lymphomas [35].…”