Increase in lymphocyte subsets following treatment of HIV-associated neutropenia with granulocyte colony-stimulating...

Recombinant human granulocyte colony-stimulating factor (G-CSF) has been used to treat neutropenia in patients with cancer and HIV disease. Since lymphocyte counts have been reported to increase with G-CSF therapy, we studied the effect of G-CSF on lymphocyte subsets in HIV-infected patients. Six patients with HIV-associated neutropenia were treated with G-CSF and had significant increases in white blood cell counts. G-CSF induced a significant rise in total lymphocytes, total T-cells, CD8 T-cells, and natural killer cells. A smaller but statistically significant increase in CD4 T-cells and cytotoxic CD8 T-cells was also noted. We conclude that G-CSF has the ability to raise lymphocyte subset levels in patients with HIV disease. The potential immunologic benefit of G-CSF therapy merits further investigation.