Gene expression profiling in CD4+CD25+CCR4+ T-cells isolated from HAM/TSP, ATLL and healthy donor

Human T-lymphotropic virus type 1 (HTLV-1) is a retrovirus that is the causative agent of adult T cell leukemia/lymphoma (ATLL) and HTLV-1-associated myelopathy/tropical spastic paraparesis (HAM/TSP). HTLV-1-infected T cells have been hypothesized to contribute to the development of these disorders, although the precise mechanisms are not well understood. Recently, we and others have proposed that HTLV-1 preferentially infects CD4+CD25+CCR4+ T-cells. In this study, we used microarrays to examine the gene expression profiles of CD4+CD25+CCR4+ T-cells isolated from a HAM/TSP patient, an ATLL patient and a healthy donor to identify gene signatures that may be characteristic for these particular diseases. We performed microarray gene expression profiling of immune cells selected on the marker of HTLV-1 infection, CD4, CD25 and CCR4 from a HAM/TSP patient, an ATLL patient and a healthy donor. Total RNA samples from CD4+CVD25+CCR4+ T-cells were subjected to Cy-3 labeling followed by human whole genome gene expression microarray analyses.