Study on changes in peripheral NK cell subsets among HIV-infected patients by multi-color flow cytometry

Abstract

Objective To study the differences in the numbers and distributions of natural killer (NK) cell subsets in peripheral blood between human immunodeficiency virus (HIV) infected patients and healthy donors based on multi-color flow cytometry. Method Five cell-surface antibodies (CD3, CD14, CD19, CD56 and CD16) and 7-AAD were used to establish a multi-color flow cytometry staining protocol to detect NK cell subsets. Peripheral blood samples from 20 HIV-infected male patients and 20 healthy subjects were analyzed by six-color flow cytometry. Results The absolute number of NK cells in HIV- infected patients (188±117.7) /μL was significantly lower than that in healthy donors (281.6±107.8)/μL. The difference was statistically significant (p<0.05). The proportion of cytotoxic NK cells (64.8±20.0)% in HIV- infected patients was lower than that in healthy donors (87.9±5.5)% and the difference was statistically significant (p<0.01). The non-functional NK cell subset in HIV-infected patients (24.1±19.4)% was significantly higher than that in healthy donors (5.0±3.2)%. The difference was statistically significant (p<0.01). The above changes were not associated with CD4+ T cell counts and viral loads. Conclusion Decreased absolute number and the imbalanced subset distribution of NK cells were caused by HIV infection. Key words: Multi-color flow cytometry; HIV; NK cells subsets; Distribution