Kouitab N, Cole B, Mayer K, Flanigan T, Margolick J, Poisson M Providence, RI.: For the HERS Group.
Elevated levels of CD8+/CD38+ in HIV-1 infected men, stratified according to CD4 absolute counts, add prognostic value in predicting disease progression. We have evaluated CD8 subsets in a cohort of women to further understand the relationship of these subsets with and disease status. In addition, we examined the effect of intravenous drug use (IDU) on this relationship. Blood was analysed by flow cytometry and dual color analysis. The panel used included monoclonal antibodies against CD3+/CD4+, CD3+/CD8+, CD8+/CD38+, CD8+/HLA-DR+, CD8+/CD28+, CD57+/CD8+, and CD3+/CD16+ (+) CD56+. The patients were stratified according to absolute CD4 count as follows: > 500 (n=82); 351-500 (48); 201-350 (58), and ≤ 200 (40), as well as a matched seronegative group with absolute CD4 count of > 500 (92).
Relationships between absolute CD4 count and each of the CD8 subsets were assessed statistically by analysis of variance (ANOVA), and multiple linear regression analysis. R-squared values were used to determine the strength of each relationship. The effect of IDU was evaluated using two-way ANOVA.
RESULTS: The following CD8+ subsets: CD3+, CD38+, HLA-DR+ and CD57+, each were independently inversely proportional to CD4 counts (P < 0.001 in all cases). Two-way scatterplots corroborated these negative associations. No significant differences were found in these relationships comparing IDU with non-IDU. With the exception of CD57+/CD8+, the HIV-negative women had significantly lower levels of each CD8 subset as compared to the HIV-positive women with > 500 absolute CW4 count (P < 0.001 in all cases). In conclusion, this confirms longitudinal observations seen in men, that the CD8+/CD38+ subset correlates with disease stage. Further, IDU did not appear to affect the distribution of subsets.
