Study on the changes of the activated T-lymphocyte subsets and their clinical significance in a group of Chinese HIV/AIDS patients

Objective To study the changes of the activated T-lymphocyte subsets and their clinical significance in a group of Chinese HIV/AIDS patients. Methods T lymphocyte subsets were detected by flow cytometry for 59 Chinese HIV/AIDS patients and 51 healthy blood donors (as a normal group). Furthermore, activated T-lymphocyte subsets including HLA-DR +CD4 +, HLA-DR +CD8 + and CD38 +CD8 + were analyzed in 40 among those patients and all of the healthy blood donors. Plasma HIV viral loads of all the patients were detected by b-DNA System 340. Results Compared with the normal group, all of the activated T-lymphocyte subsets in HIV and AIDS group was significantly increased. The percentages of these activated T-lymphocyte subsets in HIV/AIDS patients were significantly negatively correlated with CD4 count and positively correlated with plasma HIV viral load. Among these activated T-lymphocyte subsets, the CD38 +CD8 + subset was the most strongly correlated with CD4 count and viral load, the coefficients (r) were -0.603 and 0.523 (P0.01), respectively. Conclusions The cellular activation level is closely correlated with disease progression during HIV infection. To understand the activated T-lymphocyte subsets in HIV/AIDS patients may not only help to evaluate the patients' cellular immune status and the HIV replication, but also be of great values in predicting the progression of the disease and clinical outcome as well.