1. Primary HIV infection of infants: the effects of somatic growth on lymphocyte and virus dynamics
- Author
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Yvonne J. Bryson, Ruth Dickover, Alan Garfinkel, Christel H. Uittenbogaart, Susan Plaeger, and Paul Krogstad
- Subjects
Adult ,CD4-Positive T-Lymphocytes ,Lymphocyte ,Immunology ,Viremia ,HIV Infections ,Biology ,Virus Replication ,Virus ,Immune system ,medicine ,Immunology and Allergy ,Humans ,Lymphocyte Count ,Lymphocytes ,Infant, Newborn ,Models, Immunological ,Infant ,T lymphocyte ,Viral Load ,medicine.disease ,Infectious Disease Transmission, Vertical ,Acute Retroviral Syndrome ,medicine.anatomical_structure ,Viral disease ,Viral load - Abstract
Acute HIV infection is characterized by the appearance of high concentrations of virus in the peripheral blood. In adults, this high-level viremia spontaneously abates after several weeks. In contrast, after perinatal infection of infants, blood virus levels remain high for many months, during which the concentration of circulating CD4+ lymphocytes remains well above normal values for adults. Here we suggest an explanation for these differences, based on developmental factors including somatic growth and immunological ontogeny. Flow cytometric analysis revealed that at birth the thymus contains elevated levels of mature T lymphocytes, compared to the thymus after 3 months of age. A mathematical model is proposed incorporating immunological and virological data from longitudinally evaluated infants who acquired infection at the time of birth. This model explains the pattern of high-level viremia in infants as resulting from the replication of HIV within the progressively expanding lymphoid cell mass.
- Published
- 1999