Sixteen human T-cell lines were studied for the expression of a cell-adhesion molecule ICAM-1 and its counter-receptor LFA-1. The cell lines included 3 human T-cell-leukemia-virus-type-I (HTLV-1)-negative cell lines derived from acute lymphoblastic leukemia (ALL) and 13 HTLV-1-positive cell lines, 7 of them established from cord- or peripheral-blood T cells by in vitro transformation with HTLV-1, 2 derived from HTLV-1 carriers, and 4 derived from patients with adult T-cell leukemia (ATL). In sharp contrast to a basal level of ICAM-1 in 3 HTLV-1-negative ALL cell lines, strong induction of ICAM-1 was seen in all HTLV-1-positive T-cell lines except for MT-1, one of the 4 ATL cell lines used in the present study. On the other hand, the expression of LFA-1 (CD11a and CD18) was more or less similar among the cell lines with and without HTLV-1. Interestingly, however, 3 out of 4 ATL cell lines (TL-Om1, H582, HUT102) revealed striking depression of LFA-1 expression. Several lines of evidence strongly argued against direct involvement of the viral transactivator p40tax or some autocrine cytokines in the induction of ICAM-1 in HTLV-1-positive T-cell lines. It was also found that ICAM-1 and LFA-1 were involved in syncytium formation induced in the co-culture of HTLV-1-positive and HTLV-1-negative human T-cell lines. Implications of constitutive expression of ICAM-1 for certain clinical manifestations of ATL and of depression of either ICAM-1 or LFA-1 during progression of ATL are discussed.