Immune complexes in pediatric human immunodeficiency virus infection.

Circulating immune complexes (CIC) were analyzed in a cohort of 30 children infected with the human immunodeficiency virus. Elevated CIC were detected by the C1q assay in 70% (21/30) of all patients and by the Raji cell assay in 93% (28/30) of all patients. While only less than one third of patients with elevated CIC had free serum antibodies to Epstein-Barr virus, 80% (16/20) of them had detectable antibodies to Epstein-Barr virus associated with CIC. Enriched CIC in human immunodeficiency virus-infected children contained low levels of complement. These findings document that, as an expression of the humoral immunodeficiency, CIC in human immunodeficiency virus-infected children are deficient in complement and can thus be underestimated if complement-precipitating methods are used for their detection.