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

Expression levels of Arg I and iNOS in the peripheral T cells of patients with HIV/AIDS. Subsequently, the present study detected the frequencies of Arg I + and iNOS + CD4 + T cells and CD8 + T cells, which were isolated from the peripheral blood samples or LN tissues of the asymptomatic patients, symptomatic patients with AIDS and controls. Flow cytometry was performed to further assess the changes in the expression levels of Arg I and iNOS in the T lymphocyte subsets. In the asymptomatic and symptomatic AIDS groups, the frequencies of CD4 + T cells positive for Arg I in the peripheral blood were significantly higher, compared with the control (P<0.05), and the frequencies of CD4 + T cells positive for iNOS in the peripheral blood were significantly lower, compared with the control (P<0.05) (Fig. 2 ). In addition, the frequencies of CD8 + T cells positive for Arg I in the peripheral blood were significantly higher, compared with the control (P<0.05), and those positive for iNOS in the peripheral blood were significantly lower, compared with the control (P<0.05) (Fig. 3) . However, the frequencies were similar between these patient groups (P>0.05). Analogous results were obtained from peripheral LNs. In the two patient groups, the frequencies of CD4 + T cells positive for Arg I in the peripheral LNs were significantly higher (P<0.05), and those positive for iNOS were significantly lower (P<0.05), compared with the controls (Fig. 4) . The frequencies of CD8 + T positive for Arg I in the peripheral LNs cells were significantly higher (P<0.05), and those positive for iNOS were significantly lower (P<0.05), compared with the control (Fig. 5) . The frequencies did not differ significantly among the patient groups (P>0.05).