title: In vitro characterization of purified human thymic dendritic cells infected with human immunodeficiency virus type 1.
abstract: In the thymus, dendritic cells (DC) are functionally associated with thymocytes and are recognized to play a major role in the intrathymic differentiation of T cells. Several studies have previously investigated the role of DC during HIV-infection, but the status of thymic DC in HIV-1 pathogenesis remains unclear. In this study, we investigated the susceptibility of purified human thymic DC to HIV-1 infection in vitro. HIV-1 was not detected in cell-free supernatants collected from HIV-infected DC. However, these cultures were shown to transmit HIV-1 infection since coculture with permissive MT4 cells resulted in virus production. The exposure of DC in culture to HIV-1 was shown to promote severe DC morphological changes and killing. We also found that one or several heat labile soluble cytotoxic agents present in the HIV-1-infected DC supernatant mediated the killing of thymocytes. Our observations raise the possibility that (1) the HIV-1-induced DC killing, (2) the capacity of DC to transmit viral infection, and/or (3) the release of HIV-1-mediated cytotoxic agent(s) from DC may contribute to AIDS pathogenesis in vivo.
authors.affiliation: Départment de microbiologie et immunologie, Faculté de médecine, Université de Montréal, Québec, Canada.
authors.forename: S
authors.initials: S
authors.lastname: Beaulieu
authors.forename: A
authors.initials: A
authors.lastname: Kessous
authors.forename: D
authors.initials: D
authors.lastname: Landry
authors.forename: S
authors.initials: S
authors.lastname: Montplaisir
authors.forename: D
authors.initials: D
authors.lastname: Bergeron
authors.forename: E A
authors.initials: EA
authors.lastname: Cohen
mesh_terms: D000818:Animals; D016923:Cell Death; D002461:Cell Line, Transformed; D002478:Cells, Cultured; D002522:Chlorocebus aethiops; D003601:Cytotoxicity Tests, Immunologic; D003713:Dendritic Cells / Q000276:immunology / Q000378:metabolism / Q000648:ultrastructure / Q000821:virology*; D015497:HIV-1 / Q000472:pathogenicity*; D006801:Humans; D017403:In Situ Hybridization; D055646:Killer Factors, Yeast; D011506:Proteins / Q000276:immunology / Q000378:metabolism; D012367:RNA, Viral / Q000032:analysis; D013950:Thymus Gland / Q000166:cytology / Q000276:immunology / Q000378:metabolism / Q000821:virology*
chemical_list: D055646:Killer Factors, Yeast; D011506:Proteins; D012367:RNA, Viral