The Journal of Immunology, Vol 156, Issue 10 4012-4017, Copyright © 1996 by American Association of Immunologists

ARTICLES

Intact antigen receptor-mediated calcium signals in patients with early stage HIV-1 infection

TE Hickey, PJ Blair, S Perfetto, DS Smoot, KF Wagner, DC St Louis, DL Mayers, JN Siegel and CH June
Immune Cell Biology Program, Naval Medical Research Institute, Bethesda, MD 20889, USA.

A variety of deficiencies in T cell activation have been described in HIV-1 infection. To determine whether one component of Ag receptor signal transduction might be impaired and contribute to the immunopathology of HIV infection, we tested CD4 cells from patients with early to mid-stage HIV infection for TCR-induced calcium mobilization. There was no detectable difference between patients and controls in the mean CD4 cell calcium response or in the fraction of responding CD4 cells after cross-linking the TCR with OKT3 Ab. In addition, in HIV-infected patients, there was no correlation between calcium mobilization and the CD4 cell count. These results indicate that there are no intrinsic impairments of Ag receptor calcium signaling in circulating CD4 cells from HIV-infected patients with more than 400 CD4 cells/mm3, although abnormalities in patients with later stage infections cannot be excluded.