FIG. 8.
The study of the expression of α-defensins 1 to 3 and of hBD2 in HIV seronegative and seropositive subjects reveals decreased hBD2 expression in HIV infection. Paraffin-embedded sections of nonkeratinized human oral mucosa were stained as described in Materials and Methods for α-defensins 1 to 3 (A and C) and for hBD2 (B and D). Shown here are representative results from one each (out of a total of five each) HIV-negative (upper panels) and HIV-positive (lower panels) subjects.