FIGURE 6.

PMN from SIV⁺ rhesus macaques display mitochondrial insult. A, Whole blood samples from healthy controls (SIV⁻), SIVΔnef and SIV⁺ RMs (slow progressors, RM SP, and moderate progressors, RM MP) on day 14 postinfection were incubated at 37°C for 4 h. Δψ_m loss was measured by flow cytometry using DiOC6 and expressed as the percentage of DiOC6^low cells. One experiment representative of three. B, Bax and Bak staining of PMN and CD8⁺ T cells from healthy control (SIV⁻), SIVΔnef macaque, and RM moderate progressor (RM MP). One experiment representative of three is shown. C, Whole blood samples from SIV⁺ rhesus macaques on day 14 postinfection were incubated at 37°C for 4 h with PBS, z-VAD-fmk (a broad caspase inhibitor) (10 μM), or ALLN (a calpain inhibitor) (50 μM). Apoptosis was studied as described in the legend of Fig. 1. Values are means ± SEM (n = 6). D, Efficacy of z-VAD-fmk on apoptosis of macaques cells. CD8⁺ T cells from SIV⁺ RMs on day 14 postinfection were pretreated with PBS or z-VAD-fmk (10 μM) and then incubated in the presence of rhCD95L (200 ng/ml). T cell apoptosis was analyzed using annexin V⁺ staining. Values are means ± SEM (n = 3).*, p < 0.05, Significantly different from samples incubated with PBS.