title: Detection of human immunodeficiency virus type 1 in semen from seropositive men using culture and polymerase chain reaction deoxyribonucleic acid amplification techniques.
abstract: We have demonstrated that the polymerase chain reaction is a valid and sensitive technique for the detection of human immunodeficiency virus type 1 (HIV-1) proviral deoxyribonucleic acid (DNA) in human semen. The combination of extraction, polymerase chain reaction, and liquid hybridization techniques used in this study was sensitive to a level of detection of one HIV-1 infected cell in 100,000 (or 3 infected cells/test sample). In a series of matched peripheral blood mononuclear cells (PBMC) and semen cells from 25 HIV-1 seropositive homosexual men, HIV-1 DNA was detected by polymerase chain reaction in 23 of 25 PBMC samples and 1 of 25 semen samples. By coculture on mitogen-activated peripheral blood leukocyte target cells, 19 of 24 PBMC and 4 of 24 semen samples were positive for infectious HIV-1. Of the four culture-positive semen samples, three were negative for the proviral form of the virus in the polymerase chain reaction assay. These data indicate that HIV-1 infected cells are not as prevalent in semen as in the peripheral blood. Furthermore, they indicate that the classical polymerase chain reaction approach, which only detects HIV-1 proviral DNA (infected cells), is not sufficient for clinical screening programs whose goal is the detection of HIV-1-infected semen samples. Accurate semen analysis by polymerase chain reaction may require enrichment of the infected cell population and/or a reverse transcriptase step to enable detection of the infectious ribonucleic acid form of the virus.
authors.affiliation: Department of Obstetrics, Gynecology, and Reproductive Biology, Brigham and Women's Hospital, Boston, Massachusetts.
authors.forename: B J
authors.initials: BJ
authors.lastname: Van Voorhis
authors.forename: A
authors.initials: A
authors.lastname: Martinez
authors.forename: K
authors.initials: K
authors.lastname: Mayer
authors.forename: D J
authors.initials: DJ
authors.lastname: Anderson
mesh_terms: D004247:DNA / Q000032:analysis; D006679:HIV Seropositivity / Q000235:genetics*; D015497:HIV-1 / Q000235:genetics*; D006801:Humans; D007963:Leukocytes, Mononuclear / Q000648:ultrastructure; D008297:Male; D009693:Nucleic Acid Hybridization; D016133:Polymerase Chain Reaction; D011533:Proviruses; D012661:Semen / Q000382:microbiology*
chemical_list: D004247:DNA