HIV-INFECTION OF HUMAN CARTILAGE

Infection of human cartilage with HIV in vivo has not previously been reported. Specimens of articular cartilage taken at postmortem from te n patients who were HIV-positive were examined, Two had AIDS and eight were believed to have stage-2 disease. The standard polymerase chain reaction (PCR) protocol was modified to allow semiquantitative analysi s of the samples. Oligonucleotide primers labelled with P-32 gamma-ATP were used to detect a segment of HIV DNA and a control DNA gene segme nt (HLA genome) to estimate the ratio of infected cells. The P-32-labe lled PCR products were separated on acrylamide gels and visualised dir ectly by autoradiography and computer densitometry. Infection of human cartilage in vivo was demonstrated in nine of the ten samples in whic h the PCR analysis was positive. The other did not react sufficiently to produce detectable radiolabelled PCR product despite repeated DNA d igestion and extraction. Cartilage infected with HIV could be a potent ial source of HIV when used in operations.