Relationship of Frequency of CD4+CD25+Foxp3+ Regulatory T Cells with Disease Progression in Antiretroviral-Naïve HIV-1 Infected Chinese

Abstract

Forty-five antiretroviral-naïve HIV-1 infected patients and 14 healthy controls in North China were enrolled in this study. The frequency of CD4+CD25+Foxp3+ regulatory T cells (Tregs) and levels of expression of CD95, HLA-DR and CD38 in T cells were detected by flow cytometry. We found that the frequency of Tregs was higher in AIDS patients than in asymptomatic HIV-1 infected patients (P = 0.004). The frequency of Tregs was significantly correlated with absolute CD4 count, viral load, CD4+CD95+ T cells and CD8+CD95+ T cells (P < 0.05). The relationship between the frequency of Tregs and immune activation was not found in HIV-infected patients. We concluded that the frequency of Tregs in HIV-infected Chinese patients was significantly correlated with disease progression.