title: Functional studies of epidermal Langerhans cells and blood monocytes in HIV-infected persons.
abstract: APC dysfunction may be important in immune dysregulation associated with HIV disease. Langerhans cells, epidermal APC, can be infected with HIV, although their function in HIV-infected persons has not been studied. Therefore, we studied the immunologic function of Langerhans cells, in parallel with blood APC (enriched for monocytes/macrophages (M phi) function, in 21 HIV-seropositive (HIV+) and 21 HIV-seronegative volunteers, including three monozygotic twin pairs discordant for HIV serology. Langerhans cells from HIV+ patients were quantitatively normal and expressed normal levels of HLA-DR. However, Langerhans cells from AIDS patients and M phi from both AIDS and HIV+ non-AIDS patients stimulated allogeneic T cells less well compared with control APC. In addition, decreased recall Ag- and mitogen-induced T cell responsiveness was observed in HIV+ patients using either autologous Langerhans cells or autologous M phi as APC/accessory cells. Interestingly, Langerhans cells and M phi isolated from HIV+ twins (CD4+ cell counts of 181, 271, and 562/mm3) were able to present recall Ag normally to HIV-uninfected syngeneic T cells. In summary, APC from HIV+ patients were impaired in their ability to generate a primary immune response (i.e., alloantigen-induced T cell stimulation), but they retained the ability to generate a secondary immune response (i.e., recall Ag-induced syngeneic T cell stimulation). Thus, these findings suggest that defects in secondary immune responses commonly observed in HIV disease are dependent on T cell dysfunction alone, whereas defective primary immune responses may be secondary to both T cell and APC dysfunction.
authors.affiliation: Dermatology Branch, National Cancer Institute, Bethesda, MD 20892.
authors.forename: A
authors.initials: A
authors.lastname: Blauvelt
authors.forename: M
authors.initials: M
authors.lastname: Clerici
authors.forename: D R
authors.initials: DR
authors.lastname: Lucey
authors.forename: S M
authors.initials: SM
authors.lastname: Steinberg
authors.forename: R
authors.initials: R
authors.lastname: Yarchoan
authors.forename: R
authors.initials: R
authors.lastname: Walker
authors.forename: G M
authors.initials: GM
authors.lastname: Shearer
authors.forename: S I
authors.initials: SI
authors.lastname: Katz
mesh_terms: D000328:Adult; D000938:Antigen-Presenting Cells / Q000276:immunology*; D002452:Cell Count; D002478:Cells, Cultured; D004200:Diseases in Twins; D005260:Female; D015658:HIV Infections / Q000276:immunology*; D006801:Humans; D007376:Interleukin-2 / Q000096:biosynthesis; D007801:Langerhans Cells / Q000276:immunology*; D008297:Male; D008875:Middle Aged; D009000:Monocytes / Q000276:immunology*; D012867:Skin / Q000276:immunology*; D013601:T-Lymphocytes / Q000276:immunology
chemical_list: D007376:Interleukin-2