Defective maturation of dendritic cells during HIV-1 infection is associated with increased expression of SOCS-1

Methods DCs from 21 therapy naive (mean CD4: 256 cells/mm), 21 patients on anti-retroviral therapy (mean CD4: 342 cells/mm) and 14 healthy controls were immunophenotyped for maturation markers at baseline and after 5 hour ex vivo stimulation with TLR-4 ligand, LPS, by flowcytometry. Subsequently, the expression of SOCS-1 gene and the cytokine levels were assessed in monocytederived DCs (Mo-DC) of healthy donors exposed to LPS and HIV-1 gp120 by real time PCR and flowcytometry respectively.