FIG 1.

Longitudinal changes in CD4⁺ T cell subset frequencies during the acute phase of HIV-1 infection. (A) Gating strategy used to delineate memory CD4⁺ T cell subsets. (B) Average fold change in CD4⁺ T cell subset frequency in peripheral blood of 24 acutely HIV-1-infected individuals. Superimposed is the course of viral load development. (C and F) Average fold change (C) and average absolute change (F) in CD4⁺ T cell subset frequency in HIV-1-infected cell cultures of healthy donor PBMC. (D) The frequencies of proliferating CD4⁺ T cells were not significantly higher in infected cell cultures compared to the uninfected controls. (E) Fold changes in the frequencies of early apoptotic CD4⁺ T cells showed no significant differences compared to the uninfected control. (G) The frequency of naive CD4⁺ T cells inversely correlates with the frequency of SCM on day 3 after the infection as confirmed by the Pearson’s correlation test. (H and I) Changes in prevalence of CD95⁺ CD4⁺ T cells along the course of acute HIV-1 infection closely resemble those of SCM in clinical settings (H), as well as in vitro (I). Statistical significance of changes in subset frequency at different time points was assessed by Kruskal-Wallis test.