FIG. 1.

Gut-homing memory CD4⁺ T cell population in antiretroviral treatment (ART)-suppressed primary HIV-1 infection (PHI) and chronic HIV-1 infection (CHI) patients. Memory gut-homing CD4⁺ T cells were identified by expression of CD45RO and integrin β7. (A) The first panel shows the clearly defined β1⁺ and β7⁺ populations from the CD3⁺CD4⁺CD45RO⁺α4⁺(CD49d) cells within peripheral blood mononuclear cells (PBMCs). The second panel depicts sorting based on CD3⁺CD4⁺CD45RO⁺β7⁺ cells. These cells are clearly associated with α4, with 98% of the β7⁺ cells shown to be positive for α4. The presence of β7⁺ cells within CD45RO⁺CD4⁺ T cells is shown for one representative subject studied in the third panel. The proportions of memory gut-homing and memory non-gut-homing CD3⁺CD4⁺ T cell subsets are shown with the majority of cells demonstrated to be non-gut-homing β7⁻CD4⁺ T cells. (B) Scatter plots of medians and interquartile range (IQR) of absolute total and integrated HIV-1 DNA copies/500 ng DNA are shown for CD3⁺CD4⁺, CD3⁺CD4⁺CD45RO⁻, CD3⁺CD4⁺CD45RO⁺β7⁺, and CD3⁺CD4⁺CD45RO⁺β7⁻ T cell subsets from CHI patients. Each individual patient is represented by a unique symbol. Both the gut-homing and non-gut-homing memory CD4⁺ T cell subsets contained a significantly greater number of total HIV-1 DNA copies/500 ng DNA than the naive CD4⁺ T cell subsets (p=0.016 for both comparisons). (C) Scatter plots of the median percentage and IQR of total and integrated HIV-1 DNA in either integrin β7⁺CD45RO⁺CD4⁺ T cells (16% and 19.5%, respectively) or β7⁻CD45RO⁺CD4⁺ T cells (84% and 80.5%, respectively) are shown for CHI patients with each individual patient represented by a unique symbol. (D) Corresponding scatter plots of medians and IQR of absolute total HIV-1 DNA copies/500 ng DNA are shown for ART-suppressed and PHI patients.