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Updated: Aug 15, 2026

Processing of Bronchoalveolar Lavage Fluid and Matched Blood for Alveolar Macrophage and CD4+ T-cell Immunophenotyping and HIV Reservoir Assessment
Published on: June 23, 2019
HIV-1 infection is associated with altered innate pulmonary immunity
Stephen B Gordon1, Edward N Janoff, Dan Sloper
1Wellcome Trust Research and Department of Medicine, University of Malawi College of Medicine, Blantyre, Malawi. sbgordon@liverpool.ac.uk
Abstract:
We obtained bronchoalveolar lavage (BAL) fluid from 45 Malawian adults, to measure the concentrations of innate pulmonary immune factors that are important in lung defense against infection. Increased concentrations of the beta -chemokine RANTES were found in BAL fluid from the human immunodeficiency virus (HIV)-1-infected subjects, compared with those in BAL fluid from the HIV-1-uninfected control subjects (mean, 86 pg/mL vs. 0 pg/mL; P<.001). Lysozyme concentrations were also elevated in the HIV-1-infected subjects, compared with those in the HIV-1-uninfected control subjects (1.9 mu g/mL vs. 1.1 mu g/mL; P=.03), but were not elevated in the HIV-1-infected subjects who had recently recovered from invasive pneumococcal disease. Concentrations of lactoferrin and secretory leukocyte protease inhibitor (SLPI) were not different when the subjects were compared by HIV-1 serostatus. Concentrations of RANTES (R2=0.68 and P<.0001) and SLPI (R2=0.29 and P=.001) correlated with BAL fluid HIV-1 load but not with plasma HIV-1 load.
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