Search for human T-lymphotropic virus type I carriers among northeastern Chinese.

Human T-lymphotropic virus type I (HTLV-I) is thought to be the causative agent of adult T-cell leukemia/ lymphoma (ATL). This virus infection is endemic in southwestern Japan, parts of Africa and the Caribbean Islands. We examined sera of 1645 subjects of Liaoning province, northeastern China to detect HTLV-I carriers in an effort to reveal the migratory route taken by the early Japanese (Jomon people). As a result, all sera were found to be negative as tested by particle-agglutination (PA), immunofluorescence (IF), enzyme-linked immunoabsorbent (ELISA) and Western blotting methods. This suggests that the Jomon people, who are thought to have brought HTLV-I to the Japan archipelago tens of thousands of years ago, did not come from northeast China.