Figure 1.

Schematic depiction of a healthy gut environment (A) and a gut environment (B) that is disturbed as the result of chronic HIV infection. Depicted are the gut content (bottom; fermenting microbes producing short-chain saturated fatty acids, SCFAs, especially in (A)), the cells forming the gut lining (enterocytes), immune cells (between enterocytes and blood vessels) that are either inactivated or activated, and a blood vessel that receives either SCFAs or pro-inflammatory cytokines, bacteria and bacterial products from the gut. Created with BioRender.com.