The Dominant T-Helper Lymphocyte Function of HIV Infected Patients.

In HIV infection, the decrease in the number and functional activity of lymphocytes is accompanied by atopia and an increased level of total IgE and some specific IgE antibodies. This could be explained by the Th2 dominance induced by HIV replication and so a Th1-Th2 switch could have prognostic value. We investigated the characteristic T-helper phenotype dominance and its relationship to cytokine expression and IgE immune response in the early stage of asymptomatic HIV infection.