USE OF PRIMARY ASTROCYTIC CULTURE FOR MODELING HIV NEUROINFECTION

The article deals with the results of the experiment substantiating th e in vitro model of HIV neuroinfection. In this work primary glial (as trocytic) tissue cultures obtained from normal human and animal (guine a pig) brain tissue were used. As revealed in this investigation, the following phenomena could be observed in human brain tissue monolayer culture, infected with HIV and subsequently subcultured: (a) the stimu lation of tissue-cell growth; (b) the formation of multinuclear glial cells; (c) the presence of virus-specific proteins in astrocyte cytopl asm, detected by immunofluorescent and electrophoretic techniques; (d) the presence of HIV-1 DNA provirus in infected astrocytes. Cytodestru ction was not observed, reverse transcriptase activity was absent.