ABSTRACT
Objective:To detect the expression of BTLA on Treg cells of HIV-infected patients and investigate the role of BTLA in HIV infection.Methods: Forty-four HIV-1-infected patients (twenty-four early HIV infection,fourteen chronic HIV-infected patients with CD4+ T counts> 200 cells/μl,AIDS patients with CD4+T counts<200 cells/μl) and nine healthy people served as normal controls were selected to detect the expression of BTLA on Treg cells by flow cytometry.The correlations between BTLA expression on Treg cells and disease progression or immune activation were studied.Results: There was a higher percentage of BTLA on Treg cells in chronic HIV patients and AIDS patients than that in early HIV infected patients(P<0.05,P<0.01),and the expression of BTLA on Treg cells in AIDS patients was higher than that in normal controls(P<0.05).The expression of BTLA on Treg cells was negatively correlated with CD4+T lymphocyte counts and positively correlated with viral load (P<0.001,P<0.01).The percentage of BTLA on Treg cells was positively correlated with CD4+CD38+T lymphocytes and CD4+HLA-DR+T lymphocytes(P<0.001,P<0.001).Conclusion: Increased BTLA expression on HIV-infected Treg cells is associated with disease progression,suggesting that it may accelerate disease progression by enhancing Treg cells inhibitory function and may provide intervention information for HIV infection in the future.
ABSTRACT
Objective To study the alternations of regulatory T cells in early HIV infected patients and its association with disease progression.Methods Fifty-one untreated HIV infected patients were enrolled and divided into 3 groups according to their infection time and CD+4 T cell levels(30 early HIV infected patients,15 typical progressors,6 AIDS patients).Twenty normal controls were enrolled.There were no significant differences between the age and sex among four groups.Blood was drawn by venipuncture from each subject in EDTA tubes and the levels of CD+4 CD+25 Foxp3 + regulatory T cells were detected by FACSAria flow-cytometry.Spearman correlation was used to detect association between CD+4 CD+25 Foxp3 + regulatory T cells and the absolute CD+4 T cells,viral load and activation of T cells.Results The levels of CD+4 CD+25Foxp3+ regulatory T cells showed the tendency of increasing tendency from normal control to early HIV infected patients,asymptomatic HIV infected patients and AIDS patients.Early HIV infected patients was significantly lower than that in AIDS group [3.79(2.11 - 5.43) % vs 8.09(4.90 - 8.90) %,Z = - 2.29,P = 0.022].The levels of CD+4 CD+25 Foxp3 + Treg cells were associated with viral set point(r = 0.479,P =0.038) and inversely associated with CD+4 T cells(r = -0.455,P =0.011) and closely associated with HLA-DR expression on CD+3 T cells(r = 0.533,P = 0.002).Conclusions The ratio of CD+4 CD+25 Foxp3 +regulatory T cells of early HIV infected patients was significantly increased and associated with viral set point and CD+4 T cell counts,which indicate that alternation of regulatory T cell may be an important factor contributing to the disease progression in early HIV infection.