Differential Expression of Cytokine Genes in HIV-1 tat Transfected T and B Cell Lines

Abstract

Cytokine responses are dramatically affected when HIV-1 infected cells are activated with certain antigenic stimuli. We report the effects of HIV-1 tat gene in cytokine modulation, using HIV-1 tat transfected T (Jurkat) and B (Raji) cell lines. Studying the effect of tat and/or PMA+PHA on mRNA expression of 14 cytokines (IL-1α, IL-2, IL-4, IL-5, IL-6, IL-8, IL-10, IL-12, TNF-α, TNF-β, GM-CSF, TGF-β, IFN-γ and MIP-1α) illustrated differential effects. In addition to the varied effects of tat on the steady state levels of cytokine mRNAs, tat induced the secretion of TNF-β preferentially in both B and T cell lines, either by itself as in Raji B cell line or synergistically upon PMA+PHA stimulation as in Jurkat T cell line.