HOME HELP FEEDBACK SUBSCRIPTIONS ARCHIVE SEARCH		QUICK SEARCH:   [advanced] Author: Keyword(s): Year:  Vol:  Page:

This Article Full Text (Papers in Press[PDF]) Alert me when this article is cited Alert me if a correction is posted Services Email this article to a friend Similar articles in this journal Similar articles in PubMed Alert me to new issues of the journal Download to citation manager Citing Articles Citing Articles via CrossRef Google Scholar Articles by Inaba, K. Articles by Miura, T. PubMed PubMed Citation Articles by Inaba, K. Articles by Miura, T. Agricola Articles by Inaba, K. Articles by Miura, T.

Small intestine CD4+ cell reduction and enteropathy in SHIV-KS661-infected rhesus macaques in presence of low viral load

¹ Institute for Virus Research, Kyoto University;
² Yokohama City University;
³ Brigham and Women's Hospital, Harvard Medical School;
⁴ Nippon Medical School

⁵ E-mail: tmiura{at}virus.kyoto-u.ac.jp

HIV-1, SIV and SHIV infection generally leads to death of hosts accompanied by high viremia and profound CD4+ T cell depletion. SHIV-KS661-infected rhesus macaques with high viral load set-point (HVL) ultimately experience diarrhea and wasting at half to one year after infection. On the contrary, infected-macaques with low viral load set-point (LVL) usually live asymptomatically through the observation period, and have therefore been referred to as Asymptomatic LVL (Asym LVL) macaques. Interestingly, some LVL macaques exhibited diarrhea and wasting similar to symptoms of HVL macaques, and were named Symptomatic LVL (Sym LVL) macaques. Here, we tested the hypothesis that Sym LVL macaques have the same degree of intestinal abnormalities as HVL macaques. The proviral DNA loads in lymphoid tissues and intestine of Sym LVL and Asym LVL were comparable and all infected monkeys showed villous atrophy. Notably, the CD4+ cell frequencies of lymphoid tissues and intestine in Sym LVL macaques were remarkably lower than those in Asym LVL and uninfected macaques. Furthermore, Sym LVL and HVL macaques exhibited an increased number of activated macrophages. In conclusion, intestinal disorders including CD4+ cell reduction and abnormal immune activation can be observed in SHIV-KS661-infected macaques independent of viral replication levels.

Received 5 October 2009; accepted 3 November 2009.