Phenotypic T cell alterations occur early in male homosexual
HIV-1 infection
HIV infection is characterized by a disturbance in T cell homeostasis,
which results in an alteration to T cell subsets. To investigate the
impact of HIV infection on CD4+ T cell populations, we
performed a cross-sectional analysis of CD4+ T cell
populations in male homosexual HIV patients compared to healthy
controls. Patients with chronic HIV infection were stratified into
ART-receiving and ART-naive patients. The phenotypic characteristics of
the CD4+ T cell subsets are presented in Table 2.
Within CD4+ T cells, the percentage of TN was lower in
the HIV-infected patients (n = 30, 34.10
[12.38~47.73] %) than in the control group (n =
28,43.26 [35.20~52.08] %, p = 0.0209)
(Fig.1a). For the TCM, although the difference was not statistically
significant, it tended to be more expanded in HIV-infected patients (n =
30, 32.95 [28.13~39.68] %) than in the control
group (n = 28, 32.10 [27.67~36.68] %) (Fig.1b).
Interestingly, statistically significant frequencies of TEM and TemRA
were observed in two groups (p < 0.0001 and p =
0.0061, respectively) (Fig.1c and d). To study the effect of ART on
CD4+ T cell subsets, the differences between ART-naive
HIV-infected patients and ART-receiving patients were further analyzed.
The percentage of TN was expanded to a greater extent in ART-receiving
patients (n = 30, 43.35 [38.38~48.13] %, p =
0.0314) when compared to ART-naive patients (n = 30, 34.10
[12.38~47.73] %, p = 0.0314) (Fig.1a).
Similarly, there was no difference in the frequencies of TCM between the
two groups. While the percentages of TEM and TemRA were significantly
reduced in the ART-receiving patients (n = 30, 13.43
[9.40~19.81] % and 0.4
[0.175~0.625] %, respectively) in comparison to
ART-naive patients (n = 30, 18.50 [11.93~23.85] %
and 1.000 [0.3~1.783] %, p = 0.0157 andp = 0.0274, respectively) (Fig. 1c and d).