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Diagnosis | T-cell lymphoma associated with simian T-cell lymphotropic virus 1

Lab Animal volume 40, pages 180–182 (2011)Cite this article

Lymphoma is a common neoplasm in nonhuman primates (NHPs). 'Outbreaks' of lymphoma have been reported at the California Regional Primate Research Center1, the New England Regional Primate Center2, the Delta Regional Primate Center3, Sukhumi Primate Center (in Abkhazia, once part of the USSR)4 and the National Baboon Colony of Australia5. These 'outbreaks' of lymphoma have been associated primarily with simian T-cell lymphotropic virus 1 (STLV-1), although associations with other type C retroviruses have been identified infrequently6,7.

STLV-1 is a type C retrovirus that naturally infects a wide range of NHPs; serologic studies have recorded a high infection rate in many species of both wild-trapped and captive monkeys. Human T-cell lymphotropic virus 1 (HTLV-1) is endemic in Japan and the Caribbean and is associated with adult T-cell leukemia or lymphoma and tropical spastic paresis, a demyelinating disease8. STLV-1 was identified shortly after the initial isolation of HTLV-1 (ref. 9). HTLV-1 and STLV-1 belong to a group of viruses that have been classified as primate T-cell lymphotropic virus type 1 (PTLV-1)10. These viruses share a common ancestry, genomic organization and propensity to induce lymphoproliferative disease in infected simian and human hosts. The phylogeny of PTLV-1 indicates that HTLV-1 emerged from a simian origin. HTLV-1 includes six subtypes that evolved from STLV-1 several times in the past, in different geographic areas where interspecies transmission between simian and human hosts occurred11.

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Figure 3: High-power photomicrograph of an immunohistochemical stain of a section of lymph node from a 12-year-old female vervet with T-cell lymphoma.

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Acknowledgements

We thank Dr. Sven Parsons for veterinary consultation, Dr. Tertius Gous for the necropsy and histopathology and Dr. Lucia Lange (of PathCare Vet Lab, Cape Town, South Africa) for the immunohistochemistry.

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Diagnosis | T-cell lymphoma associated with simian T-cell lymphotropic virus 1. Lab Anim 40, 180–182 (2011). https://doi.org/10.1038/laban0611-180

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