FASEB J.
HOME HELP FEEDBACK SUBSCRIPTIONS ARCHIVE SEARCH TABLE OF CONTENTS
QUICK SEARCH:   [advanced]


     

(The FASEB Journal. 2008;22:lb500)
© 2008 FASEB
This Article
Right arrow Alert me when this article is cited
Right arrow Alert me if a correction is posted
Services
Right arrow Email this article to a friend
Right arrow Similar articles in this journal
Right arrow Alert me to new issues of the journal
Right arrow Download to citation manager
Right arrow reprints & permissions
Google Scholar
Right arrow Articles by Iannello, A.
Right arrow Articles by Ahmad, A.
PubMed
Right arrow Articles by Iannello, A.
Right arrow Articles by Ahmad, A.

lb500

Low levels of circulating IL-21 in HIV-infected AIDS patients

Alexandre Iannello, Emil Toma and Ali Ahmad

Microbiology and Immunology, University of Montreal, Montreal, Canada

ABSTRACT

Interleukin-21 (IL-21) is a relatively recently discovered type-1 cytokine. It is a CD4+ T cell-derived cytokine and has pleiotropic effects on the functions of immune cells. The cytokine bears special relevance to HIV infection as it is mainly produced by CD4+ T cells: the main targets of the virus. Therefore, we were interested in knowing how this cytokine is regulated in vivo in this viral infection. For this purpose, we measured IL-21 by ELISA in the sera of 29 AIDS patients and compared them with a similar number of sera from age-matched HIV-seronegative healthy persons.

Our data show that the sera from HIV-infected patients had 2 fold less concentrations of IL-21 as compared to the healthy subjects. Levels of circulating IL-21 depended upon the quantity of CD4+ T cells present in the circulation of the patients. Thus, the patients with low numbers of CD4+ T cell counts showed lower levels of this cytokine as compared to the patients with higher CD4+ T cell counts. Indeed, a significant positive correlation existed between the numbers of CD4+ T cells and the levels of IL-21 in sera from AIDS patients.

To conclude, the depletion of CD4+ T cells during HIV infection results in low levels of circulating IL-21 in HIV-infected patients. The positive correlation between numbers of CD4+ T cells and concentrations of IL-21 may suggest the use of this cytokine as a reliable hallmark for the progression of HIV-induced AIDS.





This Article
Right arrow Alert me when this article is cited
Right arrow Alert me if a correction is posted
Services
Right arrow Email this article to a friend
Right arrow Similar articles in this journal
Right arrow Alert me to new issues of the journal
Right arrow Download to citation manager
Right arrow reprints & permissions
Google Scholar
Right arrow Articles by Iannello, A.
Right arrow Articles by Ahmad, A.
PubMed
Right arrow Articles by Iannello, A.
Right arrow Articles by Ahmad, A.