Fig 2.

Recombinant HTLV-1/SU2 provirus can infect and immortalize fresh PBMCs in culture. Approximately 10⁶ virus producer cells (the number of cells was normalized to the equivalent p19 Gag output) or 729 negative-control cells were irradiated (10,000 rads) and cocultured with 2 × 10⁶ freshly isolated human PBMCs in 24-well plates with 10 U/ml of rhIL-2. These cultures were fed with fresh media on a weekly basis. Data represent the results from a representative of two independent experiments. (A) Cell viability was determined by trypan blue exclusion using three random wells from each of the cocultures on a weekly basis. The symbols denote the averages and the error bars denote the standard deviations at each time point for each of the corresponding cocultures. (B) The active replication of HTLV in each of these cocultures was determined by measuring p19 Gag output in the supernatant using ELISA. The symbols denote the averages and the error bars denote the standard deviations in the p19 Gag levels from three random wells of the corresponding cocultures.