Low CD4/CD8 T-cell ratio associated with inflammatory arthropathy in human T-cell leukemia virus type I Tax transgenic mice

Human T-cell leukemia virus type I (HTLV-1) can cause an aggressive malignancy known as adult T-cell leukemia/lymphoma (ATL) as well as inflammatory diseases such as HTLV-1-associated myelopathy/tropical spastic paraparesis (HAM/TSP). A transgenic mouse that expresses HTLV-1 Tax also develops T-cell leukemia/lymphoma and an inflammatory arthropathy that resembles rheumatoid arthritis. The

Our findings reveal that Tax transgenic mice develop rheumatoid-like arthritis with proliferating synovial cells in the joints; however, the proportion of different splenic T-cell subsets in these mice was completely different from other commonly used animal models of rheumatoid arthritis. The crucial T-cell subsets in arthropathic Tax transgenic mice appear to resemble those in HAM/TSP patients rather than those in rheumatoid arthritis patients.