Immunosuppressive factors from adult T-cell leukemia cells.

The mechanism of immunodeficiency in adult T-cell leukemia (ATL) patients was studied in vitro. Peripheral blood lymphocytes from ATL patients and ATL cell lines such as Hut 102, MT 1, and MT 2 were not activated to proliferate by the stimulation with concanavalin A and suppressed normal lymphocyte proliferative responses induced with concanavalin A when cultured together. The sera from ATL patients and the culture supernatants from ATL cells and ATL cell lines also suppressed normal lymphocyte proliferative responses induced with concanavalin A. By Sephacryl S-200 column chromatography, the suppressive factors were fractionated as a single peak with the molecular weights of 50,000 to 70,000. The suppressive factors were unstable to acid treatment but stable to the treatment with base, heat, freezing-thawing, and trypsin. The factors suppressed the production of interleukin 2 by T-cells and the responsiveness of T-cells to interleukin 2, but not the expression of interleukin 2 receptors on T-cells and the production of interleukin 1 by monocytes. These results suggest that the immunosuppressive factors produced by ATL cells have some roles in the induction of immunodeficient states in ATL patients.