6th International AIDS Conference


San Francisco, California, USA — June 20-23, 1990

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Expression of HIV-1 mRNA and p24Ag in the liver of HIV-1 infected subjects.

Int Conf AIDS 1990 Jun 20-23; 6:314 (abstract no. 1002)
Housset C, Lamas E, Boucher O, Girard PM, Berthelot P, Marche C, Brechot C; INSERM U.75 CHU Necker, Paris, France

Etiological factors of liver lesions (including sinusoidal abnormalities) in HIV-1 infection are still poorly known. We previously reported immunohistochemical detection of the CD4 molecule on liver endothelial sinusoidal cells. Immunostaining with a monoclonal antip24/p55 antibody (Abbott) was observed in the liver sections of 7/17 HIV-1 infected patients (13/17 with AIDS) (C. Housset et al., Human Pathol. in press). Labelled cells included 2 types: inflammatory mononuclear cells and sinusoidal cells with a morphology consistent with that of Kupffer cells.

OBJECTIVES: 1) confirm these results, by using a complementary approach: in situ hybridization 2) identify replication of the virus.

METHODS: In situ hybridization was performed on liver samples of 5 HIV-1+ subjects (1,3 and 1 with AIDS, ARC and LAS respectively). Probe: RNA probe labelled with 35S UTP using a 3kb cDNA complementary to the Env HIV-1 gene.

RESULTS: In the 5 samples tested, HIV-1 RNA were identified in inflammatory mononuclear cells as well as in some scattered intralobular, mostly sinusoidal cells. Further studies using immunostaining for a better identification of the cells with HIV-1 mRNA are ongoing.

CONCLUSION: These results confirm those obtained previously indicating that HIV-1 replication may occur in liver cells and particularly in Kupffer cells. Viral infection of sinusoidal liver cells might therefore be involved in some liver lesions observed in HIV-1 infection.

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