Production of tumor necrosis factors by human T cell lines infected with HTLV-1 may cause their high susceptibility to human immunodeficiency virus infection.

The production of tumor necrosis factor (TNF)-alpha and TNF-beta by various human hematopoietic cell lines was quantitatively examined using a highly sensitive radioimmunoassay specific to TNF-alpha, or a cytolytic assay performed with mouse L929 cells. It was found that the HTLV-1-infected T cell lines examined produced large amounts of both TNF-alpha and TNF-beta. In particular, interleukin-2 (IL-2)-dependent cell lines produced large amounts of TNF-alpha. In contrast, human cell lines not infected with HTLV-1 essentially did not produce either of the TNFs. It was also found that the high production of TNF-alpha by HTLV-1-infected cells partially correlated to their high sensitivity to human immunodeficiency virus (HIV) infection. Treatment of MT-4 cells, one of the most HIV-sensitive HTLV-1-infected cell lines, with antibody specific to TNF-alpha reduced their sensitivity to HIV infection.