Muscle siderosis in AIDS: a marker for macrophage dysfunction?

We have observed numerous iron granules in muscle fibres, endothelial cells and macrophages of muscle biopsy specimens of 21 out of 41 AIDS patients with different patterns of muscle involvement. All patients were severely immunodepressed. We report on our findings and discuss the mechanism of muscle siderosis that may point to deterioration of some functions of macrophages at a late stage of HIV infection.