Changes of peripheral follicular helper T cell subsets in HIV infected patients / 中华实验和临床病毒学杂志

ABSTRACT

Objective@#To investigate the changes of the frequencies of follicular helper T (Tfh) cell subsets in peripheral blood of HIV-1 infected patients and its relevance to the disease severity.@*Methods@#Twenty untreated HIV+ patients, 20 HAART-suppressed patients and 15 health controllers are enrolled in this study. The frequencies of Tfh and its subsets were examined by flow cytometry.@*Results@#The frequency of Tfh17 subset in peripheral blood decreased significantly in untreated HIV-1+ patients as compared with those of healthy controls and HAART-suppressed patients (P<0.05). In addition, the frequency of this subset were positively correlated with CD4+ T cell counts in both untreated and treated HIV+ patients, and were inversely correlated with viral load and plasma-immunoglobulin in untreated HIV+ patients. The frequency of Tfh2 subset, however, were inversely correlated with CD4+ T cell counts and positively correlated with viral load and plasma-immunoglobulin in untreated HIV+ patients. The frequency of Tfh1 subset in peripheral blood increased significantly in untreated and treated HIV-1+ patients as compared with those of healthy controls (P<0.05) and were inversely correlated with viral load and plasma-immunoglobulin in untreated HIV+ patients and positively correlated with CD4+ T cell counts.@*Conclusions@#The abnormal distribution of Tfh subests may play a role in the progression of HIV infection and its characteristic immune activation.