High prevalence of thymic tissue in adults with human immunodeficiency virus-1 infection. |
| |
| Authors: | J M McCune R Loftus D K Schmidt P Carroll D Webster L B Swor-Yim I R Francis B H Gross R M Grant |
| |
| Affiliation: | The Gladstone Institute of Virology and Immunology, University of California, San Francisco, San Francisco, California 94141-9100, USA. Mike_McCune.givi@quickmail.ucsf.edu |
| |
| Abstract: | The thymus in adults infected with the HIV-1 is generally thought to be inactive, both because of age-related involution and viral destruction. We have revisited the question of thymic function in adults, using chest-computed tomography (CT) to measure thymic tissue in HIV-1-seropositive (n = 99) or HIV-1-seronegative (n = 32) subjects, and correlating these results with the level of circulating CD4(+) and CD8(+) T cells that are phenotypically described as naive thymic emigrants. Abundant thymic tissue was detectable in many (47/99) HIV-1-seropositive adults, aged 20-59. Independent of age, radiographic demonstration of thymic tissue was significantly associated with both a higher CD4(+) T cell count (P = 0.02) and a higher percentage and absolute number of circulating naive (CD45RA+CD62L+) CD4(+) T cells (P < 0.04). The prevalence of an abundant thymus was especially high in younger HIV-1-seropositive adults ( 40 yr) regardless of CD4 count (P = 0.03). These studies suggest that the thymus is functional in some but not all adults with HIV-1 disease. |
| |
| Keywords: | |
|
|
