PROLIFERATION-DEPENDENT REPLICATION IN PRIMARY MACROPHAGES OF MACROPHAGE-TROPIC HIV TYPE-1 VARIANTS

We previously demonstrated that completion of reverse transcription in macrophages inoculated with the HIV-1 Ba-L variant was established on ly in the subpopulation of cells with proliferative capacity, In our p resent study we further extended this observation with three additiona l HIV-1 isolates, being the macrophagetropic ADA strain and two primar y macrophage-tropic HIV-1 variants isolated from cerebrospinal fluid a nd from bronchoalveolar lavage from AIDS patients, On inoculation, irr espective Of the virus variant used, elongated reverse transcription p roducts could be demonstrated only in macrophages that had proliferate d during inoculation as evidenced by the incorporation of bromodeoxyur idine (BrdU), a thymidine analog, The presence of newly synthesized ea rly products of reverse transcription also in the BrdU-negative fracti on indicated that viral entry is not disturbed in nondividing cells, O ur data indicate that the process of reverse transcription is dependen t on cellular conditions that coincide with cell proliferation, and th erefore that HIV-1 replication is restricted to cells with proliferati ve potential.