Expression of arginase I and inducible nitric oxide synthase in the peripheral blood and lymph nodes of HIV-positive patients

ZHANG, NAICHUN; DENG, JIANNING; WU, FENGYAO; LU, XIANGCHAN; HUANG, LEI; ZHAO, MIN

In order to determine changes in the expression levels of Arg I and iNOS in LNs following HIV infection, the present study firstly evaluated the expression levels of Arg I and iNOS in peripheral LNs in situ using immunohistochemistry. The results showed that Arg I was predominantly expressed in the cytoplasm, and the levels of expression varied among the groups, between negative to strongly positive. In the control group (Fig. 1A) , the expression of Arg I was most weakly positive or positive, whereas the expression levels of Arg I in the patient groups ( Fig. 1B and 1C) , were almost positive or strongly positive. By contrast, the expression of iNOS exhibited the opposite trend to the changes in the expression of Arg I, with the expression of iNOS being positive in the control group (Fig. 1D) , and positive, weakly positive or negative in the patient groups ( Fig. 1E and F) . Taken together, the results of the immunohistochemical analyses showed that, in the patient groups, the expression levels of Arg I were significantly higher, compared with the control group (P<0.01; Fig. 1G ), whereas the expression levels of iNOS were significantly lower, compared with the control group (P<0.05; Fig. 1H ). No significant differences were observed between the asymptomatic and AIDS groups (P>0.05).