Figure 4.

HIV-1 R5_SF162 and X4_IIIB infection of human seminal vesicles in organotypic culture. A: Reverse transcriptase activity measured in supernatants of human seminal vesicle explants demonstrated a significant increase between days 9 and 11 after exposure to HIV-1 R5_SF162 (circle, black line), whereas no increased reverse transcriptase activity was detected after exposure to HIV_IIIB (square, dotted line) (n = 6 donors in each case). B: Activated PBMCs exposed to supernatants of R5_SF162 infected explants collected at peak of reverse transcription demonstrated increased reverse transcriptase activity in the supernatants during culture (n = 3), whereas no increase was observed after exposure of activated PBMCs to X4_IIIB-infected seminal vesicle supernatants collected at different times during culture (n = 3; data shown for day 9). C: Accumulation of HIV-1 DNA in seminal vesicle explants between days 5 and 13 to 15 after exposure to either HIV-1 R5_SF162 or X4_IIIB, as assayed for LTR DNA using quantitative real-time PCR. For each virus, six different explants from six donors were tested. Results represent the mean ± SEM [Mann-Whitney test, *P < 0.05; control, day 7 (A), day 4 (B), and day 5 (C)].