CD4+CD25+/hiCD127lo Phenotype Does Not Accurately Identify Regulatory T Cells in All Populations of HIV-Infected Persons

• Published in: The Journal of infectious diseases Vol. 201; no. 3; pp. 331 - 335
• Main Authors: del Pozo-Balado, Maria del Mar, Leal, Manuel, Méndez-Lagares, Gema, Pacheco, Yolanda María
• Format: Journal Article
• Language: English
• Published: Oxford The University of Chicago Press 01.02.2010; Oxford University Press
• Subjects: Biological and medical sciences; Fundamental and applied biological sciences. Psychology; Human viral diseases; Infectious diseases; Medical sciences; Microbiology; Viral diseases; Viral diseases of the lymphoid tissue and the blood. Aids; Human; Infection; Immunopathology; Phenotype; Cell population; Viral disease; T-Lymphocyte; AIDS; Identification; Immune deficiency
• ISSN: 0022-1899; 1537-6613
• DOI: 10.1086/649840

The most commonly used regulatory T cell (Treg) phenotypes, CD4+CD25hiCD127lo and CD4+CD25hiFoxP3+, were simultaneously used to determine the Treg frequency in 2 different groups of human immunodeficiency virus (HIV)- infected persons, one viremic and other aviremic. As expected, a strong correlation between both Treg phenotypes was observed in the aviremic group (r=0.913; P < .001), but surprisingly, this correlation was completely absent in the viremic group (r=0.143; P=.572). Data on T cell activation levels of both HIV groups suggest that the CD4+ CD25hiCD127lo phenotype could just be mirroring the elevated numbers of activated non-regulatory T cells in the viremic HIV group.