AIDSWEEKLY Plus, 12 Aug 1996
Daniel J. DeNoon, Senior Editor

No other immunologic differences could be found between these highly exposed, persistently seronegative (HEPS) women and either infected women or a normal reference population.

"These preliminary observations raise the possibility that natural killer cells play a role in resistance to HIV infection among women with repeated exposure to a single HIV positive partner," said Kittipong Rungruengthanakit of Chiang Mai University, Chiang Mai, Thailand.

Rungruengthanakit announced preliminary results from a cooperative study by researchers at the U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC), Chiang Mai University, and Johns Hopkins University at the XI International Conference on AIDS, held July 7-12, 1996 in Vancouver, British Columbia, Canada.

Rungruengthanakit and colleagues conducted detailed immunologic studies of 73 Thai whose husbands had been infected with HIV via blood transfusion.

Fourteen of these women were selected for study because they fit the HEPS profile: HIV negative by ELISA and p24 antigen assays, married, two or more years of monogamous marriage to the same HIV infected man, and a frequency of sexual intercourse of at least two times per week.

The women were compared to 59 seronegative women with short-term exposure to HIV infected husbands and to a reference Thai population of 210 women.

There were no differences between the HEPS women and the other seronegative women in white blood cell count, total lymphocyte count, CD4/CD8 T-lymphocyte ratio, CD4 or CD8 T- lymphocyte percentage, or CD4 or CD8 T-lymphocyte count.

"However, they had higher mean natural killer cell percentage (24.5 percent) than either the seronegative study women with short or indeterminate exposure (18.4 percent, P=0.01) or the reference population (19 percent)," Rungruengthanakit reported.

The mean natural killer cell count of the HEPS women (659) was higher than the other seronegative study participants (494, P=0.04) or the reference population (452).

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