DuChateau B K, Lee G W, Westerman M P, Beaman K D
Clinical Immunology Laboratory and Department of Microbiology/Immunology, Finch University of Health Sciences/The Chicago Medical School, North Chicago, Illinois 60064, USA.
Clin Diagn Lab Immunol. 1999 Mar;6(2):193-8. doi: 10.1128/CDLI.6.2.193-198.1999.
Regeneration and tolerance factor (RTF) plays a pivotal role in successful pregnancy outcome and has potent immunomodulating properties. During pregnancy, it is abundantly expressed in the placenta and on peripheral B lymphocytes. Several lines of evidence suggest that both successful pregnancy outcome and progression from human immunodeficiency virus (HIV) infection to AIDS are associated with a Th2-type response. As a result, we hypothesized that the cellular expression of RTF may also be increased during infection with HIV. Using flow cytometric analysis, we showed a significantly (P < 0.01) increased expression of RTF on CD3(+) cells obtained from individuals with HIV over that for individuals without HIV. On average, 32.1% of the CD3(+) cells from individuals with HIV expressed high levels of RTF. In contrast, an average of only 6.7% of the CD3(+) cells from individuals without HIV expressed high levels of RTF. Similar results were obtained when CD19(+) cells from individuals with (mean, 44.1%) and without (mean, 25.8%) HIV were evaluated. Linear regression analysis suggested that high levels of RTF expression by CD3(+) cells correlated better with viral load (r value, 0.46) than with absolute CD4 count (r value, 0.09). While additional experiments are necessary to delineate the precise immunologic role of RTF, our current data suggest that RTF expression during HIV infection may be a useful marker of immune activation.
再生与耐受因子（RTF）在成功的妊娠结局中起关键作用，且具有强大的免疫调节特性。在孕期，它在胎盘及外周B淋巴细胞中大量表达。多条证据表明，成功的妊娠结局以及从人类免疫缺陷病毒（HIV）感染进展至获得性免疫缺陷综合征（AIDS）均与Th2型反应相关。因此，我们推测HIV感染期间RTF的细胞表达也可能增加。通过流式细胞术分析，我们发现，与未感染HIV的个体相比，感染HIV个体的CD3(+)细胞上RTF的表达显著增加（P < 0.01）。平均而言，感染HIV个体的CD3(+)细胞中有32.1%高水平表达RTF。相比之下，未感染HIV个体的CD3(+)细胞中平均仅有6.7%高水平表达RTF。对感染（平均为44.1%）和未感染（平均为25.8%）HIV个体的CD19(+)细胞进行评估时，也得到了类似结果。线性回归分析表明，CD3(+)细胞高水平表达RTF与病毒载量的相关性（r值为0.46）优于与绝对CD4细胞计数的相关性（r值为0.09）。虽然需要进一步的实验来阐明RTF的确切免疫作用，但我们目前的数据表明，HIV感染期间RTF的表达可能是免疫激活的一个有用标志物。
