Identification of HTLV-I sequence in cord blood mononuclear cells of neonates born to HTLV-I antigen/antibody-positive mothers by polymerase chain reaction.

We developed a polymerase chain reaction (PCR) method which has high sensitivity and simple technique in order to investigate the presence or absence of human T lymphotropic virus type I (HTLV-I) provirus in cord blood mononuclear cells of neonates born to HTLV-I carrier mothers. Out of 40, three subjects were found to contain the HTLV-I provirus genome. These three subjects remained HTLV-I sequence-positive in follow-up study. On the other hand, when examined by a conventional technique for detection of HTLV-I-associated antigen on peripheral mononuclear cells, all 40 neonates were HTLV-I-associated antigen-negative. These results suggest that PCR is more sensitive than the conventional antigen detection method and is useful in early detection of HTLV-I infection in neonates born to HTLV-I carriers.