The expression of HIV-1 tat and nef genes induces cell-specific changes in growth properties and morphology of different types of rat cells.

Among the viral regulatory genes the tat and nef genes of HIV-1 encode the proteins playing a central role in viral replication and exerting pleiotropic effects on the survival and growth of the cells. These effects differ in various cell types, possibly due to the use of genes from different HIV-1 isolates. In this work, we studied the effects of the tat and nef genes on three types of cultured rat cells: primary embryo fibroblasts, pseudonormal Rat-2, and pheochromocytoma PC12.