Antigenic cross-reactivity between human T lymphotropic virus type I (HTLV-I) and retinal antigens recognized by T cells.

To investigate the relationship between uveitis and HTLV-I infection, we examined the cross-reactivity between HTLV-I antigens and retinal antigens recognized by T cells in B10.BR mice immunized with human HTLV-I-infected MT-2 cells. We found that T cells obtained from MT-2 immune mouse spleen responded not only to HTLV-I antigens but also to retinal antigens of various species. However, they did not respond to HTLV-I-negative lymphoid cell lines. Furthermore, established T cell lines from MT-2 immune spleen cells also responded to both HTLV-I and retinal antigens. The phenotype of the immune cells that responded to both HTLV-I and retinal antigens was CD4+, CD8-, and CD3+. The proliferative response of T cell lines to HTLV-I as well as various retinal antigens, was clearly blocked by addition of anti-CD3, anti-CD4, or anti-I-Ak MoAbs, but not by anti-CD8 antibody. The established T cell lines from HTLV-I immune spleen cells were all found to be CD3+, TCR beta +, CD4+, CD8- cells by flow cytometric analysis. These results indicate that an epitope of HTLV-I antigens is cross-reactive to an epitope of retinal antigens extracted from either human retinoblastoma or normal murine, rat, and bovine retinae at a T cell recognition level.