HIV load in highly purified CD8+ T cells retrieved from pulmonary and blood compartments

Abstract

The pulmonary microenvironment can be HIV infected from the asymptomatic period of HIV infection and it has been demonstrated that HIV presence elicits a discrete virus-specific CTL immune response in the lungs. In this study we analyzed T cell subsets and compared the proportion of CD8+ T cells harboring HIV in the lung and in the circulation of HIV-seropositive patients with T cell alveolitis. Proviral load was assessed using the DNA-polymerase chain reaction technique on highly purified CD8+ T cells isolated from peripheral blood and bronchoalveolar lavage. The proviral load of pulmonary CD8+ T cells showed an upward trend with respect to corresponding samples isolated from the peripheral blood of the same patients.