Study subjects
A total of 60 HIV-infected patients were recruited from the Outpatient
Clinic of Beijing Ditan Hospital, Capital Medical University (China). A
total of 30 patients were ART-naive at the time of enrolment (ART-naive
group). There were 30 patients who received ART for a minimum of one
year prior to inclusion and had suppressed viral replication
(ART-receiving group). For comparison, 28 age-matched HIV-negative
healthy subjects were included as a control group (HC group). Both
HIV-infected individuals and healthy controls were all homosexual males
in this study. The exclusion criteria consisted of chronic diseases,
neoplasms, immune inflammatory diseases, other non-HIV-related diseases,
and metabolic complications. This study was approved by the local
research ethics committee. Written informed consent was obtained from
all participants.