TY - JOUR
T1 - Establishment of the CD4(+) T-cell pool in healthy children and untreated children infected with HIV-1
AU - Hazenberg, Mette D.
AU - Otto, Sigrid A.
AU - van Rossum, Annemarie M. C.
AU - Scherpbier, Henriëtte J.
AU - de Groot, Ronald
AU - Kuijpers, Taco W.
AU - Lange, Joep M. A.
AU - Hamann, Dörte
AU - de Boer, Rob J.
AU - Borghans, José A. M.
AU - Miedema, Frank
PY - 2004
Y1 - 2004
N2 - Current understanding of how the T-cell pool is established in children and how this is affected by HIV infection is limited. It is widely believed that the thymus is the main source for T cells during childhood. Here we show, however, that healthy children had an age-related increase in total body numbers of naive and memory T cells, whereas absolute numbers of T-cell receptor excision circles (TRECs) did not increase. This suggests that expansion of the naive T-cell pool after birth is more dependent on T-cell proliferation than was previously recognized. Indeed, the proportion of dividing naive T cells was high, especially in younger children, which is consistent With expansion through proliferation, in addition to antigen-mediated naive T-cell activation leading to formation of the memory T-cell pool. In untreated children infected with HIV-1, total body numbers of T cells and TRECs were low and stable, whereas T-cell division levels were significantly higher than in healthy children. We postulate that in children infected with HIV, similar to adults infected with HIV, continuous activation of naive T cells leads to erosion of the naive T-cell pool and may be a major factor in lowering CD4(+) T-cell numbers. (C) 2004 by The American Society of Hematology
AB - Current understanding of how the T-cell pool is established in children and how this is affected by HIV infection is limited. It is widely believed that the thymus is the main source for T cells during childhood. Here we show, however, that healthy children had an age-related increase in total body numbers of naive and memory T cells, whereas absolute numbers of T-cell receptor excision circles (TRECs) did not increase. This suggests that expansion of the naive T-cell pool after birth is more dependent on T-cell proliferation than was previously recognized. Indeed, the proportion of dividing naive T cells was high, especially in younger children, which is consistent With expansion through proliferation, in addition to antigen-mediated naive T-cell activation leading to formation of the memory T-cell pool. In untreated children infected with HIV-1, total body numbers of T cells and TRECs were low and stable, whereas T-cell division levels were significantly higher than in healthy children. We postulate that in children infected with HIV, similar to adults infected with HIV, continuous activation of naive T cells leads to erosion of the naive T-cell pool and may be a major factor in lowering CD4(+) T-cell numbers. (C) 2004 by The American Society of Hematology
U2 - https://doi.org/10.1182/blood-2004-03-0805
DO - https://doi.org/10.1182/blood-2004-03-0805
M3 - Article
C2 - 15297312
SN - 0006-4971
VL - 104
SP - 3513
EP - 3519
JO - Blood
JF - Blood
IS - 12
ER -