Gut microbiota from high-risk men who have sex with men drive immune activation in gnotobiotic mice and in vitro HIV infection
Fig 6
Fecal bacterial communities isolated from HIV-negative and HIV-positive MSM promote HIV infection of primary human lamina propria cells.
Primary lamina propria cells (LPCs) were isolated from human jejunum tissue, stimulated with isolated fecal bacterial communities (FBCs) from HIV-negative MSW (n = 12), HIV-negative MSM (n = 15), and HIV-positive MSM (n = 9) donor feces, and infected with HIVbal. LPCs were stained for intracellular HIV-1gag expression and T cell activation markers at 5 days post-infection using flow cytometry. (A) Gating strategy for HIVgag+ T cells. (B–C) Comparison of levels of (B) HIV-1gag+ cells and (C) CD38+ HLADR+ CD8+ T cells following infection. Each data point represents the median value of one FBC tested across 3 different individuals’ LPCs. Lines represent medians within groups. Statistical analyses were performed using t-tests to compare groups if data from both groups had normal distributions and Mann-Whitney tests to compare groups if data from at least one group had a non-parametric distribution. * = p<0.05. (D–E) Spearman correlations between frequencies of HIV-1gag+ cells and frequencies of (D) CD38+ HLADR+ CD4+ T cells, and (E) CD38+ HLADR+ CD8+ T cells. Dotted lines represent linear regression analyses.