COMPARATIVE-ANALYSIS OF APOPTOSIS IN HIV-INFECTED HUMANS AND CHIMPANZEES - RELATION WITH LYMPHOCYTE-ACTIVATION

Programmed-cell death (apoptosis) is a physiological cell death proces s which appears exacerbated in peripheral lymphocytes from HIV-infecte d persons. On the contrary, a barely detectable level of apoptosis is found in peripheral lymphocytes from HIV-infected chimpanzees, which s upport long-term productive infection without developing AIDS. In the present study, we analyzed the relationship between apoptosis and the general state of immune activation in PBMC from HIV-infected humans an d chimpanzees. In addition, apoptosis control in the CD8 subset by the bcl-2 proto-oncogene was compared in both human and chimpanzees. Take n together, the results indicate that the degree of apoptosis correlat es with the state of activation of the immune system and this observat ion together with the finding that apoptosis concerns all lymphocyte s ubsets indicates that the low level of apoptosis in HIV-infected chimp anzees is related to the lack of immune activation in this nonpathogen ic model.