VARIATIONS IN GROWTH CAPACITY OF HIV IN PERIPHERAL-BLOOD MONONUCLEAR CELL PREPARATIONS FROM DIFFERENT INDIVIDUALS

To investigate whether there are variations in the growth capacity of HIV in peripheral blood mononuclear cell (PMBC) preparations from different individuals, PBMC cultures prepared from 27 healthy donors were infected with the fresh HIV-1 isolates JH/3 or JMH/1. After infection of the PBMC with HIV, the culture fluid was checked for infectivity (TCID50) and the level of p24 antigen. Significant diversity was observed in these values in different individuals. No correlation between the percentage of CD4-positive lymphocytes or the growth ability of PBMC and TCID50 was shown. Whether PBMC was infected with JH/3 or JMH/1 also made no difference. In some cases, however, the culture fluid possessed high (or low) p24 levels despite a low (or high) infectious virus yield. The E-rosette-positive cell fraction was separated from the PBMC preparations which showed the highest and the lowest virus yield, and the yield was determined after infection with JMH/1. The difference in virus yield and the TCID50/p24 ratio between these donors was also observed in these T-cell-enriched cell cultures. The results suggest that variations in the growth capacity of HIV in different PBMC preparations are due to the T-cell population and that the source of the PBMC influences not only the binding of the virions onto the cell surface but also the replication of the virus in the cell.