Turnover of lymphocytes and conceptual paradigms in HIV infection

Guido Silvestri1, Mark B Feinberg

  • 1Emory Vaccine Center, 954 Gatewood Road, Atlanta, Georgia 30329, USA.

Prevailing views concerning the pathogenic mechanisms of AIDS have shifted from models that focus primarily on direct HIV-mediated killing of CD4+ T cells to models that emphasize the pathogenic role of generalized immune system activation. The observation that increases in T cell turnover seen in HIV-infected individuals primarily reflect increased proliferation of effector-memory T cells supports the concept that chronic immune activation plays a prominent, if not predominant, role in the pathogenesis of AIDS.

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