A Longitudinal Assessment of Cervical Inflammation and Immunity Associated with HIV-1 Infection, Hormonal Contraception, and Pregnancy

Abstract Hormonal contraception (HC), particularly injectable depot-medroxyprogesterone acetate (DMPA), has been associated with increased HIV acquisition and higher levels of cervical regulated upon activation, normal T-cell expressed, and secreted (RANTES), also associated with HIV seroconversion. Longitudinal changes in cervical immunity associated with DMPA and combined oral contraceptives (COCs) have not been studied. Cervical samples from 216 HIV seroconverters in Uganda and Zimbabwe with matched samples from 727 HIV-uninfected controls were collected at two quarterly visits before (t − 2, t − 1), at (t0), and two visits following (t + 1, t + 2) HIV seroconversion and corresponding visits for HIV-negative controls. We measured 10 biomarkers of inflammation and immunity and used generalized linear models to estimate and compare biomarker levels across HIV status, contraceptive, and pregnancy groups. Biomarkers remained relatively stable across visits for controls, while in HIV-infected women cervical...