Caruso A, Licenziati S, Canaris A D, Corulli M, De Francesco M A, Cantalamessa A, Fallacara F, Fiorentini S, Balsari A, Turano A
Institute of Microbiology, University of Brescia, Italy.
J Acquir Immune Defic Syndr Hum Retrovirol. 1997 May 1;15(1):61-9. doi: 10.1097/00042560-199705010-00010.
Like T cells from healthy subjects, those of HIV-1-infected patients are capable of expressing activation antigens on their surface after antigenic or mitogenic stimulation, but their proliferative activity is strongly reduced or even absent, especially in patients with advanced stages of the disease. The characteristic of expressing activation antigens in response to different stimuli in the absence of cell proliferation is shared by CD4+ and CD8+ T-cell subsets from HIV-1-infected patients. The number of T cells capable of expressing CD25 and CD71 in response to HIV-1-related antigens but not of proliferating increased significantly with the progression of the disease, but the number of T cells capable of expressing the two activation antigens in response to the classic tetanus toxoid recall antigen decreased. The higher numbers of T cells capable of responding to HIV-1-related antigens in conjunction with a reduction in the number of T cells responding to recall antigens may explain the occurrence of different infections, including opportunistic microorganisms, during the more advanced stages of HIV-1 infection. Because the increase in the number of HIV-1 antigen-responding T cells (defined by CD25 and CD71 activation antigen expression) is a characteristic of symptomatic HIV-1-infected patients, expression (by flow cytometry) of these activation antigens on T cells in response to HIV-1 antigens could be used as a new marker of disease progression.
与健康受试者的T细胞一样，HIV-1感染患者的T细胞在抗原或丝裂原刺激后能够在其表面表达激活抗原，但其增殖活性显著降低甚至缺失，尤其是在疾病晚期患者中。HIV-1感染患者的CD4+和CD8+ T细胞亚群具有在无细胞增殖的情况下对不同刺激表达激活抗原的特征。随着疾病进展，能够对HIV-1相关抗原作出反应但不增殖的表达CD25和CD71的T细胞数量显著增加，但能够对经典破伤风类毒素回忆抗原作出反应表达这两种激活抗原的T细胞数量减少。能够对HIV-1相关抗原作出反应的T细胞数量增加，同时对回忆抗原作出反应的T细胞数量减少，这可能解释了在HIV-1感染的更晚期出现包括机会性微生物在内的不同感染的原因。由于对HIV-1抗原作出反应的T细胞数量增加（通过CD25和CD71激活抗原表达来定义）是有症状的HIV-1感染患者的一个特征，因此通过流式细胞术检测T细胞对HIV-1抗原作出反应时这些激活抗原的表达情况可作为疾病进展的一个新标志物。
