INVOLVEMENT OF HIV NEF PROTEIN IN ABNORMAL HEMATOPOIESIS IN AIDS - IN-VITRO STUDY ON BONE-MARROW PROGENITOR CELLS

In previous studies (1-4), we described disrupted hematopoiesis in lon g-term human bone marrow cultures infected with HIV. Conditioned mediu m (CM) from HIV-1 non-productively infected liquid cultures inhibits t he proliferation of granulo-monocytic progenitor cells (CFU-GM) in clo nogenic assays. A growth-inhibitory soluble factor was therefore suspe cted and we report here that this factor has been identified as the ne f gene product. These nef-containing supernatants are specifically neu tralized by anti-nef antibodies and recombinant nef has the same growt h inhibitory properties. We used a nef-deficient virus to confirm that nef protein is responsible for the in vitro growth inhibition of CFU- GM.