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Updated: Jun 12, 2026
Chronic, Acute, and Reactivated HIV Infection in Humanized Immunodeficient Mouse Models
Published on: December 3, 2019
CD8+ cell depletion accelerates HIV-1 immunopathology in humanized mice
Santhi Gorantla1, Edward Makarov, Jennifer Finke-Dwyer
1Department of Pharmacology and Experimental Neuroscience, University of Nebraska Medical Center, Omaha, NE 68198, USA.
None:
Stable engraftment of human lymphoid tissue in NOD/scid-IL-2Rgammacnull mice after CD34+ hematopoietic stem cell reconstitution permits the evaluation of ongoing HIV-1 infection for weeks to months. We demonstrate that HIV-1-infected rodents develop virus-specific cellular immune responses. CD8+ cell depletion, 2 or 5-7 wk after viral infection, resulted in a significant increase of HIV-1 load, robust immune cell activation, and cytopathology in lymphoid tissues but preserved CD4/CD8 double-positive thymic T cell pools. Human CD8+ cells reappeared in circulation as early as 2-3 wk. These data support a role of CD8+ cells in viral surveillance and the relevance of this humanized mouse model for the studies of HIV-1 pathobiology and virus-specific immunity.
