Leukocytosis and Expression of Bovine Leukemia Virus microRNAs in Cattle.

Bovine Leukemia Virus (BLV) is an established model for studying retroviral infections, in particular the infection by the human T-cell leukemia type 1 (HTLV-1) virus. Here, we quantified gene expression of several BLV-related genes: effector protein of and NK-killer cells NK-lysin (), reverse BLV transcriptase receptor (, and also key enzymes of the microRNA maturation, Dicer () and Argonaut (). The differences in the expression of the above genes were compared between five groups: (1) BLV infected cows with high and (2) low lymphocyte count, (3) with and (4) without BLV microRNA expressions, and (5) cows without BLV infections (control group).