Kinetics study of human retrovirus antigens expression in T lymphocytic cell lines by indirect immunofluorescence assay

Indirect immunofluorescence assay (IFA) is a well-accepted assay for the confirmation of human retrovirus infection. Fluctuations in HIV-1 antigen expression in infected E-B2 cells depending on several factors have been reported. Cells kept in log phase expressed the highest levels of viral antigen. Thus, we studied the time kinetics of IFA positivity in MT-2 (HTLV-I), MO-T (HTLV-II), GEM, and H9 (HIV-1) cell lines. Uninfected T cell line, HT, was used as nonspecific control. Reference HTLV-I/II and HIV-1 serum panels from the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) were tested by conventional IFA procedure on slides of each cell line made on different days. On the second day after subculture, HTLV-I strongly positive sera reacted on MT-2 and MO-T cells with a bright pericytoplasmic fluorescence pattern. Weakly positive sera showed a faint staining from the fifth day on, when all the sera showed the highest degree of fluorescence. With HIV-1 cell lines, sera predominantly reacted with a diffuse cytoplasmic pattern, although some sera showed a granular and pericytoplasmic capping staining. The highest degree of fluorescence was found at 3-5 days after subculture. We demonstrated that the sensitivity of the IFA for the detection of antibodies against human retroviruses depended on the day when the slides were assayed and on the serum antibody titer. The fifth day was the most appropriate for HTLV-I/II and HIV-1/H9 systems, whereas for HIV-1/CEM, the fourth day was better. Furthermore, the intensity of the immunofluorescence pattern differed with the antibody titers and the level of antigens expressed on the four cell lines studied. The IFA, improved in our laboratory, proved to be very sensitive, specific, and rapid and could be used as a supplementary/confirmatory assay for retrovirus infection.