of staining with tax b2m was similar to that obtained with an anti v u03b213 1 specific mab indicating that all the relevant sites were saturated using tax u03b22m hla a2 ig thus peptide tethering to u03b22m is an efficient way to present peptides in the context of mhc ig molecules direct visualization of antigen specific t cells in htlv 1 associated myelopathy tropical spastic paraparesis the following examples demonstrate the use of reagents of the invention to visualize directly antigen specific t cells in patients with htlv 1 associated myelopathy tropical spastic paraparesis ham tsp and hiv infections ham tsp is caused by a human retrovirus human t lymphotropic virus type i htlv 1 2 3 the clinical symptoms of ham tsp are characterized by upper motor neuron signs and mild sensory and sphincter dysfunction 3 histopathologically one finds thoracic spinal cord atrophy involving perivascular demyelination and axonal degeneration 4 5 the pathophysiology of ham tsp is still not completely understood 6 serum reactivity to htlv 1 was first associated with ham tsp by osame and coworkers in 1986 3 the immunologic hallmark of patients with ham tsp is the spontaneous proliferation of peripheral blood lymphocytes pbl in vitro 7 9 it has been previously demonstrated that circulating cd8 cytotoxic t lymphocytes ctl in patients with ham.