Characteristics of study population
A total of 30 untreated (ART naive) HIV-infected subjects (28 years old;
IQR: 26~34 years) and 30 ART-treated HIV subjects (30.5
years old; IQR: 26~36.5 years) as well as 28 healthy
subjects (28 years old; IQR: 26~34 years) were included
in this study. As shown in Table 1, HIV-infected subjects and healthy
subjects did not significantly differ in age. CD4+ T
cell counts were only available for HIV-infected subjects. The median
CD4+ T cell counts were significantly lower in the
ART-naive HIV-infected subjects with a detectable viral load (p< 0.0001). The ART-treated HIV subjects had undergone triple
therapy by lamivudine (3TC) + tenofovir (TDF) + efavirenz (EFV) for a
mean duration of 13.0 (12.0, 22.0) months and had an undetectable plasma
viral load (< 40 copies/mL).