Development of a chronically catheterized maternal-fetal macaque model to study in utero mother-to-fetus HIV transmission: a preliminary report.
The lack of a representative animal model that permits frequent in utero fetal blood sampling is a major limiting factor for the study of maternal-fetal HIV transmission. Therefore, we have developed a maternal-fetal virus infection model using chronically catheterized macaques to simultaneously study the time-course of viral infection in the mother and the response of the fetus to maternal HIV infection. Pregnant macaques were infected with 10(3) infectious units of HIV-2(287); every 3 days blood samples from both the mother and the fetus as well as amniotic fluid samples were collected. We found a varying degree of peak and time-to-peak virus load, virus-infected PBMCs, and free virus (determined by QC-RNA-PCR method) in maternal blood. Two of the three mothers with more than 10(8) copies of viral RNA/ml of plasma at peak viremia transmitted the virus to their fetuses at about 14 days post-infection. As observed with HIV-2(287) infected mothers, virus-infected fetuses also produced a rapid rate of CD4+ cell decline in utero.
Ho
R J
RJ
Department of Pharmaceutics, University of Washington, Seattle 98195-7610, USA.
Agy
M B
MB
Morton
W R
WR
Scheibel
M
M
McClure
J
J
Watson
A
A
Hu
S L
SL
Nosbisch
C
C
Dorofeeva
N
N
Unadkat
J D
JD
D000818:Animals; D015496:CD4-Positive T-Lymphocytes / Q000276:immunology / Q000821:virology; D002408:Catheters, Indwelling; D018562:Disease Transmission, Infectious; D005314:Embryonic and Fetal Development; D005260:Female; D005865:Gestational Age; D015658:HIV Infections / Q000196:embryology* / Q000276:immunology / Q000635:transmission*; D015498:HIV-2 / Q000302:isolation & purification; D008214:Lymphocytes / Q000276:immunology* / Q000821:virology; D008253:Macaca mulatta; D016133:Polymerase Chain Reaction; D011247:Pregnancy; D011251:Pregnancy Complications, Infectious; D012367:RNA, Viral / Q000097:blood; D014766:Viremia / Q000097:blood / Q000635:transmission
D012367:RNA, Viral