Effects of G-CSF on telomere lengths in PBMCs from human immunodeficiency virus-infected patients: Results from a randomized, placebo-controlled trial

Telomeres are unique terminal chromosomal structures, the length of which h as been shown to decrease with cell division in vitro and with increased ag e in vivo for human somatic cells. In human immunodeficiency virus (HIV)-1 infection, decrease of telomere length is primarily found in CD8(+) T cells , and not in CD4(+) T cells. In this double-blind placebo-controlled study, we investigated the effect of granulocyte colony stimulating factor (G-CSF ) treatment combined with highly active antiretroviral therapy (HAART) on m ean telomere length in peripheral blood mononuclear cells (PBMC). The termi nal restriction fragment (TRF) length showed no changes during G-CSF treatm ent although the number of lymphocytes increased significantly. The mean TR F length correlated positively (R = 0.552, P = 0.009) and negatively (R = - 0.503, P = 0.02) to the proportion of CD4(+) memory and naive cells, respec tively. Our data suggest that during G-CSF treatment lymphocytes are recrui ted by a combination of central and peripheral proliferation.