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Département de Virologie, Institut Pasteur, 28 rue du Dr. Roux, 75015 Paris, France,1 Unidade de Imunologia Clínica, Instituto de Medicina Molecular, Faculdade de Medicina, Universidade de Lisboa, Av. Prof. Egas Moniz, 1649-028 Lisboa, Portugal2
Received 24 May 2007/ Accepted 27 August 2007
Human immunodeficiency virus type 2 (HIV-2) infection leads to a lifelong asymptomatic period in the majority of patients. Even in patients with progressive disease, a slow CD4 count decline characterizes the chronic phase of HIV-2 infection, suggesting that peripheral T-cell homeostasis is controlled better following HIV-2 infection than following HIV-1 infection. Herein we showed that, in contrast to HIV-1-infected patients, HIV-2-infected patients demonstrate enhanced thymic function compared to age-matched healthy individuals. The correlation between higher thymic production and lower CD4 T-cell loss in these patients suggests that efficient thymopoiesis is implicated in the long-lasting maintenance of CD4 T-cell counts in HIV-2 disease.
Published ahead of print on 5 September 2007.
| J. Bacteriol. | Mol. Cell. Biol. | Microbiol. Mol. Biol. Rev. |
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| Clin. Vaccine Immunol. | ALL ASM JOURNALS |
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