Year: 1993
Type: article
Abstract: Central nervous system (CNS) involvement is frequent in both pediatric and adult AIDS.' Microglia have been shown to be the primary target for HIV-1 infection in the CNS in vivo.2,3In vitro studies concerning susceptibility of human microglia to HIV-1 infection reported conflicting results: Microglia from adult brain showed productive infection by HIV-1: whereas microglia from fetal brain did not.'We have prepared highly purified human microglial cell cultures from abortuses of 16 to 24 weeks' gestation6 and exposed them to both moncytotropic (HIV-IJR.~~.and HIV-lJR.CSF) and lymphocytotropic ( H 1 v -l ~~) isolates of HIV.Culture supernatants were examined for p24 antigen expression for a four-week period following viral exposure.Concurrently, cytopathic effects and cellular viral antigen expression (gp41 and p24) were examined by immunocytochemistry.The results showed that human fetal microglia are productively infected by HIV, as reflected by p24 levels (FIG. 1) and syncytiaformation and expression ofgp41 and p24 immunoreactivity.Electron microscopy of the HIV-IJR.I;L exposed microglia showed numerous viral particles in association with internal membranes as well as cell surfaces (FIG.2).Control cultures or astrocytes overgrown in the microglia cultures did not show evidence of infection under identical experimental conditions.These data demonstrate that the human fetal microglia, like their adult counterparts, are susceptible to HIV-1 infection in vitro and can support the production of virus.This further proves that microglial cells in the CNS have specific susceptibility for HIV-1 and may be the key cell type in the pathogenesis of the CNS dysfunction in AIDS.
Institution: Albert Einstein College of Medicine
Language: English
Topic: HIV Research and Treatment
Subfield: Virology
Field: Immunology and Microbiology
Domain: Life Sciences
Open Access status: bronze
OpenAlex ID: W2105631032