Chemokines and T lymphocyte recruitment to lymph nodes in HIV infection

Abstract

Recruitment of T lymphocytes to lymph nodes in patients with HIV infection is critical to the pathogenesis of disease. Chemokines are a family of cytokines, which are potent regulators of leukocyte migration. We studied the leukocyte populations and expression of chemokines known to be active upon T cells in lymph nodes of four HIV infected patients and seven control subjects using in situ hybridization, immunohistochemistry, and FACS analysis. The HIV lymph nodes showed CD8+ T lymphocyte accumulation and strongly enhanced chemokine expression, notably for the CD8+ T cell chemoattractant, macrophage inflammatory protein (MIP)-1 alpha. Resident macrophages appeared to be a major cellular source of chemokines in the HIV nodes. RANTES expression was present in both HIV and control lymph nodes, suggesting a physiological role for this chemokine in T lymphocyte recirculation. Chemokines may be important determinants of T lymphocyte accumulation in lymphoid tissue of patients with HIV/AIDS.