[16] THYMIC VOLUME IS INDEPENDENTLY ASSOCIATED WITH THE MAGNITUDE OF CD4+ T-CELL RECOVERY AFTER SHORT AND LONG TERM ON HAART

2nd International AIDS Society Conference on HIV Pathogenesis and Treatment

Paris, France - July 13 - 16, 2003

[TITLE:] THYMIC VOLUME IS INDEPENDENTLY ASSOCIATED WITH THE MAGNITUDE OF CD4+ T-CELL RECOVERY AFTER SHORT AND LONG TERM ON HAART

[AUTHOR(S):] E Ruiz-Mateos¹, A Vallejo¹, A Rubio¹, N Soriano¹, R de la Rosa², S Molina¹, A Sánchez-Quijano², E Lissen² and M Leal² for the Viral Hepatitis and AIDS study Group
¹Department of Biochemistry, Hospital Universitario Virgen del Rocío, Seville, Spain; and ²Department of Internal Medicine, Universitario Virgen del Rocío, Seville, Spain

IAS Conf HIV Pathog Treat 2003 Jul 13-16;2nd: Abstract No. 16
Antiviral Therapy 2003; 8(Suppl. 1):S189

[ABSTRACT:] with early CD4+ cell restoration on HAART¹. However, the association of this parameter with the magnitude of CD4+ repopulation has not been demonstrated in adults. Forty-five naïve adult HIV-infected patients on HAART were evaluated for T-cell subsets and HIV-1 RNA levels at baseline and at weeks 4, 12, 48 and 96 after starting treatment. Thymic volume, T-cell receptor excision circle (TREC)-bearing cells and T-cell phenotype, were assessed by means of thoracic computed tomography, real-time quantitative PCR and flow cytometry, respectively, in all patients at baseline and at weeks 48 after treatment when it was possible. Viral phenotype assessed by GHOST cells was also evaluated at baseline in 19 patients. Only thymic volume was independently associated with the magnitude of CD4+ Tcell repopulation at week 4, 12, 48, 96 after HAART and with the magnitude of naïve CD4+ T-cell repopulation at 48 weeks on HAART (Multiple linear regression, P<0.05), independently of viral phenotype. Surprisingly, association between magnitude of CD4+ recovery and the magnitude of either TREC bearing cell repopulation or naïve CD8+ T-cell repopulation during the follow-up was not found. In conclusion, thymic volume is the main and only factor independently associated with the magnitude of CD4+ T-cell recovery either after short or long term on HAART. Thymic volume is not associated with the magnitude of TREC-bearing cells recovery, suggesting that other alternative mechanisms for TREC production such as redistribution and/or extrathymic synthesis might be involved.

¹Ruiz-Mateos et al. "Comparison of thymic function related markers to predict early CD4+ T-cell repopulation in adult HIV-infected patients on HAART." Antiviral Therapy (in press).

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