Measurement of CD8 Subsets Discriminates Among Clinical Stages of HIV-1 Infected Patients

Abstract

HIV, the etiologic agent of AIDS, is tropic for human cells expressing the CD4 molecule on their surface and lytic for infected CD4 lymphocytes [1,2]. The immunologic characteristics of patients infected with this virus reveal a broad spectrum of abnormalities, most of which are related to the direct infection and destruction of T-helper cells. Other abnormalities, such as the polyclonal activation of B-lymphocytes and the alterations of T-suppressor cells are not entirely explained. Investigations of these abnormalities may lead to further insight into the mechanisms of disease and additional objective diagnostic and prognostic parameters. Prior investigations have demonstrated promising results, but have been hampered by the variable status of patient treatment, inappropriate grouping of patients, or nonstandardized reagent combinations [3,4]. The aim of the present study was to use standardized, well-characterized reagent combinations, with an established sample preparation technique and a routine analysis software to determine which CD8 subsets would discriminate among various clinically defined HIV-1 infected subsets.