Cell proliferation is not required for productive HIV-1 infection of macrophages.
Lentiviruses, including HIV-1, are considered a rare example of retroviruses which do not require cell proliferation for their replication. However, this notion was questioned in several publications where productive HIV-1 infection was found to be restricted to a small fraction of macrophages with proliferative capacity. Since the mode of HIV-1 replication in macrophages is of great clinical relevance, we performed a single-cell analysis of HIV-1 replication and [3H]thymidine incorporation. Our results indicate that while 17% macrophages were detected as HIV-1 DNA-positive 12 hr after infection, only 2% of those cells had incorporated tritium, about the same percentage as in the uninfected cell population. Forty-eight hours after infection, 38% macrophages were HIV-1 DNA-positive and 47% of those had incorporated tritium, while the percentage of tritium-positive uninfected cells did not change (1%). These results demonstrate directly that HIV-1 DNA does not colocalize with [3H]thymidine and support the notion that cell proliferation is not required for HIV-1 infection of macrophages.
Schmidtmayerova
H
H
Picower Institute for Medical Research, Manhasset, New York 11030, USA.
Nuovo
G J
GJ
Bukrinsky
M
M
D002455:Cell Division; D002478:Cells, Cultured; D004279:DNA, Viral / Q000096:biosynthesis; D015497:HIV-1 / Q000235:genetics / Q000502:physiology*; D006801:Humans; D008264:Macrophages / Q000166:cytology / Q000821:virology*; D013936:Thymidine / Q000493:pharmacokinetics
D004279:DNA, Viral; D013936:Thymidine