[Loss of the balance between Th17 and Th1 populations in HIV/AIDS patients].
OBJECTIVE
To evaluate the Th17/Th1 response in HIV infected patients and the mutual relationship between the response of Th17 and Th1.


METHODS
38 chronic HIV infected patients as well as 24 healthy volunteers were performed in this study. The patients were divided into two groups, one group before treatment, the other after therapy. The whole blood intracellular cytokine staining was used, samples detected by BD FACSCanto, after that, the expression of CD4+ IL-17+ T cell and CD4 IFN-gamma+ T cell were analyzed by FACSDiva software and lastly compared the differences among different groups.


RESULTS
The expression of CD4+ IL-17+ T cell in naive-therapy patients were significantly lower than that of the healthy controls (1.14 +/- 0.7)9% vs (3.98 +/- 1.14)%, P = 0.000, but increased remarkably after HARRT(highly antiretroviral treatment) (2.22 +/- 1.00)%, P = 0.001; however there were no significant differences in the expression of CD4+ IFN-gamma+ T cell before and after therapy (34.35 +/- 24.38)% vs (42.10 +/- 15.57%), also with the healthy control (P = 0.383). The frequency of CD4 IL-17+ T cell was positively correlated with CD4+ T counts (R = 0.345, P = 0.034), but no significant correlations was observed between the expression of CD4+ IFN-gamma T cell and CD4+ T counts (R = -0.247, P = 0.136).


CONCLUSIONS
The infection of HIV virus down-regulated Th17 immune response and disturbed the balances between Th17 and Th1 evidently in human. Th17 response may play an important role in the pathogenesis of HIV infection.
Peng
Qiao-Li
QL
The Third People's Hospital of Shenzhen, Shenzhen 518020, China. jimmy114337@hotmail.com
Zhang
Ming-Xia
MX
Li
Gui-Ying
GY
Liu
Ying-Xia
YX
Zhou
Bo-Ping
BP
Wang
Hui
H
D000328:Adult; D023241:Antiretroviral Therapy, Highly Active; D018791:CD4 Lymphocyte Count; D016022:Case-Control Studies; D005260:Female; D006678:HIV / Q000276:immunology; D015658:HIV Infections / Q000188:drug therapy / Q000276:immunology*; D006801:Humans; D020381:Interleukin-17 / Q000276:immunology; D008297:Male; D008875:Middle Aged; D006377:T-Lymphocytes, Helper-Inducer / Q000187:drug effects / Q000276:immunology*; D018417:Th1 Cells / Q000187:drug effects / Q000276:immunology*; D055815:Young Adult
D020381:Interleukin-17