Journal Article

The Role of Inflammation and Immune Activation on Circulating Endothelial Progenitor Cells in Chronic HIV Infection

Kumar, Jai, Li, Tong, Kumar, Princy, Baker, Jason V., Chen, Jinya, Qin, Jing, Hadigan, Colleen, Sereti, Irini, Zhu, Ziang, Catalfamo, Marta

2021

Overview

Endothelial inflammation and damage are the main drivers of cardiovascular risk/disease. Endothelial repair is mediated in part by recruitment of bone marrow endothelial progenitor/endothelial colony forming cells (EPC/ECFC). People with HIV (PWH) have increased cardiovascular risk and the impact of infection in endothelial repair is not well defined. The low frequencies and challenges to in vitro isolation and differentiation of EPC/ECFC from PBMCs had made it difficult to study their role in this context. We hypothesized that HIV driven inflammation induces phenotypic changes that reflects the impact of infection. To test this hypothesis, we evaluated expression of markers of trafficking, endothelial differentiation, and angiogenesis, and study their association with biomarkers of inflammation in a cohort of PWH. In addition, we investigated the relationship of circulating endothelial progenitors and angiogenic T cells, a T cell subset with angiogenic function. Using a flow cytometry approach, we identified two subsets of circulating progenitors LIN4 - CD45 - CD34 + and LIN4 - CD45 dim CD34 + in PWH. We found that the phenotype but not frequencies were associated with biomarkers of inflammation. In addition, the percentage of LIN4 - CD45 dim CD34 + was associated with serum levels of lipids. This data may provide a new tool to better address the impact of HIV infection in endothelial inflammation and repair.

• Publisher: Frontiers Media SA,Frontiers Media S.A
• Subject: Aged / Angiogenesis / Biomarkers / Blood pressure / Body mass index / Cardiovascular diseases / CD34 antigen / CD4-CD8 Ratio / CD45 antigen / Cholesterol / Chronic Disease / Chronic infection / Cytokines / Diabetes / endothelial inflammation / endothelial progenitor cells / Endothelial Progenitor Cells - metabolism / Endothelial Progenitor Cells - pathology / endothelial repair / Female / Flow cytometry / Genotype & phenotype / Growth factors / High density lipoprotein / HIV / HIV infection / HIV Infections - complications / HIV Infections - immunology / HIV Infections - metabolism / HIV Infections - virology / Human immunodeficiency virus / Humans / Immunology / Immunophenotyping / Infections / Inflammation / Inflammation Mediators / Lipid Metabolism / Lipids / Lipids - blood / Lymphocyte Activation - immunology / Lymphocyte Count / Lymphocytes / Lymphocytes T / Male / Middle Aged / Osteoprogenitor cells / Phenotypes / Progenitor cells / Serum levels / T cell activation / T-Lymphocyte Subsets - immunology / T-Lymphocyte Subsets - metabolism / Tumor necrosis factor-TNF / Vasculitis - etiology / Vasculitis - metabolism / Vasculitis - pathology