Schmitt MP, Steffan AM, Jaeck D, Gendrault JL, Kirn A; International Conference on AIDS.
Int Conf AIDS. 1989 Jun 4-9; 5: 686 (abstract no. C.769).
Virus Department and INSERM U 74, Strasbourg, France
OBJECTIVE: Given their localisation in the liver sinusoid, the Kupffer cells (KC), which represent the largest reservoir of fixed macrophages in the body, are ready candidates for early infection following contamination. However, until now, the role of KC in HIV infection has never been studied and no attempt has ever been made to infect KC in culture. METHODS: Isolation of KC was carried out according to the method we have previously described (Kirn et al., C.R. Acad. Sci. Paris, 1980, 291, 249). The purity of the cell culture attained 98%. Primary cultures of 24-to 72-hour-old KC were infected with HIV 1 (isolate LAV 1- Bru). RESULTS: In 3 different experiments syncytia detectable under optical microscopy appeared between 4 and 10 days. EM observations showed typical viral particles released either in vacuoles or outside the cell as well as characteristic budding figures. Except from the syncytia, no obvious cytopathic effect could be found. Furthermore, a reverse transcriptase activity increasing with the time of infection was demonstrated in the supernatant of the infected KC. CONCLUSION: Our results, which demonstrate that KC may constitute a target for HIV, suggest that these cells may play a crucial role in the physiopathology of the disease. They may not only constitute a reservoir for the virus but, given their strategic position in the liver lobule, they may also be involved actively in the dissemination of the virions.
Publication Types:
Keywords:
- AIDS Vaccines
- Acquired Immunodeficiency Syndrome
- Culture
- Giant Cells
- HIV
- HIV Antigens
- HIV Core Protein p24
- HIV Envelope Protein gp120
- HIV Infections
- HIV Seropositivity
- HIV-1
- Humans
- Kupffer Cells
- Macrophages
- Paris
- RNA-Directed DNA Polymerase
- Simian Acquired Immunodeficiency Syndrome
- Virion
- immunology
Other ID:
UI: 102179518
From Meeting Abstracts