The potential importance of HIV-induction of lymphocyte homing to lymph nodes

The mechanism by which HIV causes depletion of CD4 lymphocytes remains unknown. Recent studies have demonstrated that HIV binding to resting CD4 lymphocytes causes them to home from the blood into lymph node, and during the homing process, they are induced into apoptosis only to secondary signals through the homing receptors. If this is the principal mechanism of CD4 cell depletion, it can explain many of the events known to occur in HIV-infected individual.