The 2005 Italian Quality Control Study for the evaluation of CD4 cells in centers involved in the treatment of HIV type 1 patients.

We report the results of an external quality control program, including 17 Italian centers involved in the care of patients infected by HIV, to evaluate CD4 T cell count proficiency and reproducibility. The centers received two commercial stabilized blood preparations, one with "normal" and one with "low" CD4 T cell content. The centers were asked to process the samples two times, 1 week apart, with the same procedure used for samples from HIV patients.

Decreased T cell apoptosis and T cell recovery during highly active antiretroviral therapy (HAART).

T cell apoptosis represents a common mechanism of T cell depletion in HIV-1-infected individuals reflecting maturational and functional T cell abnormalities either directly or indirectly induced by the virus. In the present study, the effects of highly active antiretroviral therapy (HAART) on the spontaneous apoptosis of distinct T cell subsets were investigated during a 6-month follow-up in a cohort of HIV-1-infected individuals with CD4(+) cell counts between 100 and 500 cells/microliter and plasma HIV-1 RNA levels >/=10, 000 copies/ml. We determined that the rapid and sustained increase of both naive (CD45RA(+)CD62L(+)) and memory (CD45R0(+) and CD45RA(+)/CD62L(-)) CD4(+) and, to as lesser extent, CD8(+) T cells in peripheral blood was associated with a significant decrease of apoptotic CD4(+) and CD8(+) as well as CD3(+)CD4(-)CD8(-) T cells.

Apoptosis in asymptomatic HIV-1 seropositives immunized with HIV-1 env glycoprotein (gp160): effects of administration of Zidovudine in vivo and interleukin-2 in vitro.

In this paper we report the effects of VaxSyn (Protein Sciences Corp.) immunization on spontaneous apoptosis occurring in vitro after culture of PBMC in medium alone in 30 HIV-seropositive patients enrolled in a double-blind clinical trial that included three groups: treatment with VaxSyn, AZT and VaxSyn, and AZT. Our data show no significant modifications in the levels of apoptosis observed in the three groups over the long-term follow-up (up to 720 days).

Apoptosis-related mortality in vitro of mononuclear cells from patients with HIV infection correlates with disease severity and progression.

Peripheral blood mononuclear cells (PBMC) from 103 HIV-infected patients were tested for their mortality rate (MR) when incubated in vitro for 3 days in a culture medium. MR was related to apoptosis as shown by DNA analysis and morphological evaluation of ethidium bromide-stained PBMC by flow cytometry. MR was significantly higher in patients in CDC stage IV as compared to patients in stage II or III (p = 0.