[Activation of CD4+ T-lymphocytes in asymptomatic HIV infected patients induce the program action of lymphocyte death by apoptosis].
Activation-induced programmed cell death, or apoptosis, is a physiological cell suicide process involved in the negative thymic selection of the T-cell repertoire. We have proposed that the inappropriate re-emergence in the mature CD4+ T-cell population of such a death program could explain both the early dysfunction and the late depletion of CD4+ T-cells from human immunodeficiency virus (HIV)-infected individuals. We present evidence showing that the selective failure of T-cells from 10 HIV-infected asymptomatic individuals (with normal CD4+ T-cell counts) to proliferate in vitro to pokeweed mitogen and to self-major histocompatibility complex class-II T-cell receptor mobilization by superantigens is due to the induction by these stimuli of CD4+ T-cell death. This death process has characteristic features of apoptosis, including DNA fragmentation into multiples of a 200 base pair unit, and the preventive effect of the protein synthesis inhibitor cycloheximide. These findings suggest that in vivo CD4+ T-cell suicide upon activation might account, independently of any HIV-mediated cytopathic effect, for the progressive depletion of CD4+ T-cells that leads to AIDS.
C.I.B.P., I.N.S.E.R.M. U167-C.N.R.S. 624, Institut Pasteur, Lille.
H
H
Groux
D
D
Monte
J M
JM
Bourrez
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A
Capron
J C
JC
Ameisen
D015496:CD4-Positive T-Lymphocytes / Q000276:immunology* / Q000473:pathology; D002455:Cell Division / Q000187:drug effects; D002470:Cell Survival / Q000187:drug effects / Q000502:physiology; D003208:Concanavalin A / Q000494:pharmacology; D015658:HIV Infections / Q000276:immunology / Q000473:pathology*; D006679:HIV Seropositivity / Q000473:pathology*; D006801:Humans; D066298:In Vitro Techniques; D010835:Phytohemagglutinins / Q000494:pharmacology; D011043:Pokeweed Mitogens / Q000494:pharmacology
D010835:Phytohemagglutinins; D011043:Pokeweed Mitogens; D003208:Concanavalin A
L'activation des lymphocytes T CD4+ de sujets asymptomatiques infectés par le VIH entraîne le déclenchement d'un programme de mort lymphocytaire par apoptose.