AIDSWEEKLY Plus; Monday, December 16, 2002
Michael Greer, Senior Medical Writer

"An important thymus role has been suggested in T-cell repopulation after HAART in adult HIV-1 infected patients," according to A. Rubio and colleagues at the University of Seville and Virgen del Rocio University Hospital in Seville.

Adult patients who received HAART showed significant improvements in thymic volume, Rubio and coauthors found.

The researchers evaluated thymic size in 21 adult HIV patients 12 and 24 weeks after HAART initiation. Previous studies have already demonstrated HAART-induced thymic enlargement in pediatric patients, they noted.

Thymic volume was significantly improved in the adult study participants after 24 weeks of treatment, according to the report. Increased thymus size was accompanied by significant elevations in overall CD4 cell counts.

HAART-induced thymic enlargement was also associated with increased production of naive T cells (Changes in thymus volume in adult HIV-infected patients under HAART: correlation with the T-cell repopulation. Clin Exp Immunol 2002 Oct;130(1):121-6.

"These data show the first evidence of an early change in thymic volume of adult HIV-1 infected patients under HAART," Rubio and colleagues concluded. "his increase was related to the rise of both total and naive CD4+ cell counts suggesting a functional role of thymic volume increase."

The corresponding author for this report is Manuel Leal, Grupo de Estudio Hepatitis Virica y SIDA, Departamento de Medicina Interna, Virgen del Rocio University Hospital, Avenida Manuel Siurot s/n, Sevilla-41013, Spain. E-mail: mleal@cica.es.

A search at www.NewsRx.net using the search term "AIDS and HIV therapy" yielded 1193 articles in 29 specialized reports.

Key points reported in this study include:

• Highly active antiretroviral therapy (HAART) increases thymus size in adult HIV patients

• HAART-induced thymic enlargement was associated with increased T-cell production, including naive T cells

• Increased thymic volume has already been reported in HAART-treated pediatric patients

This article was prepared by AIDS Weekly editors from staff and other reports.

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