Alterations of NK cell frequency and function in HIV/HCV co-infected patients / 中华实验和临床病毒学杂志

<p><b>OBJECTIVE</b>To study the impacts of HIV/HCV co-infection to NK cells by investigating the changes of frequencies and functions of NK cells in HIV/HCV co-infected patients.</p><p><b>METHODS</b>Frequencies and counts of NK cells were measured in patients with HIV mono-infection, HCV monoinfection, HIV/HCV co-infection and health control (HC) group by flow cytometer (FCM). After stimulated with PMA and K562 cells, PBMCs were examined the proportion of IFN-gamma+ NK cells by FCM. Proportion of killed K562 cells were detected to analyze the killing functions of NK cells.</p><p><b>RESULTS</b>The frequencies of NK cells, the percentages of IFN-gamma+ NK cells as well as the functions of NK cells killing the K562 cells in HIV/HCV co-infection, HIV mono-infection and HCV mono-infection groups were all lower than those of HC group significantly, the absolute counts and killing functions of NK cells in co-infection group were significantly lower than those of HIV or HCV mono-infection group.</p><p><b>CONCLUSIONS</b>The counts and functions of NK cells were affected more in HIV/HCV co-infections than those in HIV or HCV mono-infection.</p>

The studies for activating and inhibitory receptors on natural killer cells in HIV/HCV co-infected patients / 中华实验和临床病毒学杂志

<p><b>OBJECTIVE</b>To investigate the characteristics of inhibitory and activating receptor expressions on natural killer (NK) cells in HIV/HCV co-infected patients.</p><p><b>METHODS</b>Numbers, frequencies and expressions of activating and inhibitory receptors of NK cells were measured with flow cytometry (FCS) from HIV/HCV co-infected group (n = 24), HCV mono-infected group (n = 34), HIV mono-infected group (n = 21) and healthy control group (HC, n = 20), then analysis and compare were performed among those groups.</p><p><b>RESULTS</b>The NK cell absolute counts in HIV/HCV group were significantly lower than those in other three groups. The NKP30 and NKP46 frequencies on NK cells in HIV/HCV, HIV and HCV groups were all significantly lower than those in HC group, but there were no significant differences of NKP30 among former three groups; and NKP46 frequencies in HIV/HCV and HIV groups were lower than those in HCV group, but there were no significant differences between former two groups. The NKG2A frequencies in HIV/HCV and HCV groups were all higher than those in HIV and HC groups significantly, but the NKG2A frequencies in HIV group were lower than those in HC group; There were no significant differences of NKG2D, CD158a and CD158b among those four groups.</p><p><b>CONCLUSION</b>NK cell numbers and expressions of activiting receptors on NK cells obviously decreased in HIV/HCV co-infected patients, but some inhibitory receptors expressions increased, even higher than those of HIV mono-infected patients. NK cells impairments in HIV/HCV co-infection is more severe than HIV or HCV mono-infection.</p>