Differential effects on expression of IL-2 receptors (p55 and p70) by the HTLV-I pX DNA

Abnormal expression of the low-affinity receptor for interleukin-2 (IL-2R) is a characteristic of the HTLV-I (+) leukemic T cells in adult T-cell leukemia (ATL). Despite the expression of IL-2R bearing Tac antigen (IL-2R/p55), leukemic cells of the majority of ATL patients do not proliferate in response to IL-2. In the human NK cell line, YT, as well as in ATL-derived T cells, the co-expression of IL-2R/p55 and the second IL-2R without the Tac epitope (IL-2R/p70) is required to produce high-affinity IL-2R. To study the effect of HTLV-I on both of the IL-2Rs, we transfected a fragment of HTLV-I containing the p40X gene into YT cells. One of the 2 transfected YT clones (YT/pX-5.1) had an increased level of expression of IL-2R/p55. In contrast, expression of IL-2R/p70 was unaffected, as determined by Scatchard analysis and the cross-linking study using 125I-IL-2. Our results show that the T-cell phenotype is not required for induction of IL-2R/p55 by p40X. We suggest that HTLV-I infection induces a disproportionate induction of IL-2R/p55 without significant enhancement of IL-2R/p70 expression, resulting in the predominant expression of low-affinity IL-2R in ATL. IL-2R/p70 may be a critical parameter determining the IL-2 reactivity of HTLV-I-infected T cells as well as of normal lymphocytes.