Abstract
BackgroundSeveral studies have demonstrated that SIV infection progresses more slowly to experimental AIDS in Chinese rhesus macaques (Ch Rhs) than in Indian rhesus macaques (Ind Rhs). Here we investigated the dynamic and functional changes in dendritic cell (DC) subsets in SIVmac239-infected Ch Rhs.ResultsThe numbers of both mDC and pDC strongly fluctuated but were not significantly changed during the acute and chronic phases of infection. However, the concentration of both poly (I:C)-induced IL-12 and HSV-1-induced IFN-α significantly increased in the acute phase of infection but returned to normal levels at the chronic phase of infection. The peak of IFN-α emerged earlier than that of IL-12, and it had a significantly positive correlation with IL-12, which indicated that IFN-α may initiate the immune activation. We also found that only the concentration of IFN-α was positively correlated with CD4+ T-cell counts, but it was negatively correlated with viral load.ConclusionHigh levels of IFN-α in the early stage of infection may contribute to effective control of virus replication, and normal levels of IFN-α during chronic infection may help Ch Rhs resist the disease progression. The change in DC subsets dynamics and cytokine production may help further our understanding of why Ch Rhs are able to live longer without progressing to an AIDS-like illness.
Highlights
Several studies have demonstrated that SIV infection progresses more slowly to experimental AIDS in Chinese rhesus macaques (Ch Rhs) than in Indian rhesus macaques (Ind Rhs)
Virological outcome and CD4+ T-cell counts in challenged macaques The dynamics of viral load were investigated for each Ch Rhs
In this study, we detected the dynamic and functional changes in myeloid DC (mDC) and plasmacytoid DC (pDC) in SIVmac239-infected Ch Rhs. Both the mDC and pDC numbers were observed to decrease on day 15 p.i, while the virus load achieved culmination on that day. This decrease may be due to the migration of dendritic cell (DC) into the lymph node [26,27]. mDC returned to normal levels and showed no significant increase or decrease. pDC increased within the first week, which was described using SIVmac251infected Ind Rhs [28]
Summary
Several studies have demonstrated that SIV infection progresses more slowly to experimental AIDS in Chinese rhesus macaques (Ch Rhs) than in Indian rhesus macaques (Ind Rhs). Several studies have shown that both DC subsets are significantly reduced in HIV-infected patients’ blood [12,13,14,15,16,17], with the decline being inversely correlated with viral load and reduced CD4+ T-cell numbers [13,14]. This might be relative to the hypothesis that apoptosis of DC induced by HIV and/ or migration of mature DC into the lymph node. Most studies in humans have been limited to the chronic stage of HIV infection, and animal models have mostly been used to investigate the early stage of infection
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