The impact of pregnancy on the HIV-1-specific T cell function in infected pregnant women.

Evidences indicate that pregnancy can alter the Ag-specific T-cell responses. This work aims to evaluate the impact of pregnancy on the in vitro HIV-1-specific immune response. As compared with non-pregnant patients, lower T-cell proliferation and higher IL-10 production were observed in T-cell cultures from pregnant patients following addition of either mitogens or HIV-1 antigens.

High IL-10 production by aged AIDS patients is related to high frequency of Tr-1 phenotype and low in vitro viral replication.

This work aims to elucidate the effects of age and HIV-1 infection on the frequency and function of T cell subsets in response to HIV-specific and non-specific stimuli. As compared with the younger AIDS group, the frequencies of naive and central memory T cells were significantly lower in aged AIDS patients. Although there was also a dramatic loss of classical CD4(+)FoxP3(+)CD25(+)Treg cells in this patient group, high frequencies of IL-10-producing CD4(+)FoxP3(-) T cells were observed.