Figure 7
From: Silencing of human T-cell leukemia virus type I gene transcription by epigenetic mechanisms
DNA methylation and histone modifications in fresh ATL cases. A. The relationships among DNA methylation, tax gene expression and histone modification in 5'-LTR were analyzed in three ATL cases. Cases 1 and 3 have one copy of the complete HTLV-I provirus, while Case 2 has a defective provirus that lacks part of the pol gene. DNA methylation was analyzed by COBRA. The tax gene transcripts could be detected in Case 1, but not in Cases 2 or 3, by RT-PCR. ChIP assays were also performed using primers for 5'-LTR to analyze acetylation of histone H3 (Ac-H3) and H4 (Ac-H4). W.C.E.: whole cell extract. B. Recovery of tax gene expression ex vivo. The PBMCs isolated from Case 3 were immediately cultured ex vivo for several hours and tested the transcription of tax mRNA by RT-PCR.