RESUMO
[Abstract] Objective To study the correlation between follicular helper T (TFH) cells with the cellular immunity indices and the percentage of follicular cytotoxic T (TFC) cells in peripheral blood of human immunodeficiency virus-1 (HIV-1) infected patients and explore the relationship between TFH cells and the acquired immunodeficiency symdrome (AIDS) disease progression. Methods Seventeen health controls and 65 HIV-1 infected individuals were enrolled in this study, and the HIV-1 infected patients included 48 untreated HIV-1 positive patients and 17 treated with highly active antiretroviral therapy, the 48 HIV-1 infected patients consisted of 9 patients with CD4+ T cells ≤200/μl, 19 with 200/μl 350/μl. The expression of CXCR5 on CD4+ T cells was detected by flow cytometry and its correlation with CD4/CD8 ratio and HIV-1 RNA viral load. We also analyzed the correlation between the percentage and absolute number of TFH cells and TFC cells. Results Compared with healthy controls, both the absolute cell numbers [(60.23±27.62)/μl vs. (207.53±51.50)/μl, U=0, P<0.0001] and frequency [(18.83±4.55)% vs. (22.06±5.35)%, U=242.00, P=0.0124] of TFH cells were significantly reduced in untreated HIV-1 infected patients; The absolute number of TFH cells in the antiretroviral therapy group was significantly higher than that in untreated HIV-1 infected patients [(135.05±60.77)/μl vs. (60.23±27.62)/μl, U=108.00, P=0.0082]. The frequency of TFH cells in untreated HIV-1 infected patients were negatively correlated with CD4/CD8 ratio (r=–0.338, P=0.019), positively correlated with viral load (r=0.392, P=0.006). Both the absolute cell numbers (r=0.408, P=0.004), and frequency (r=0.363, P=0.011) of TFH cells were positively correlated with the frequency of TFC cells. The percentage of TFH cells decreased with the decrease of CD4+ T cells and the number of TFH cells increased with the decrease of CD4+ T cells in untreated HIV-1 infected patients. Conclusions TFH cells may be associated with active replication of the HIV-1 and disease progression. The decrease of TFH absolute cell numbers in patients with HIV-1 infection may be related to the cytotoxicity of TFC cells.