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.