Innate Immunity at Work in AIDS Brain Disease (IMAGE)
Caption
In healthy individuals, protective white blood cells called monocytes travel from bone marrow to the bloodstream to the brain. Researchers from Boston College, examining the role of monocytes in the progression of AIDS brain disease, show in this image the presence of macrophages -- white blood cells located within tissues -- that are both productively infected with AIDS and cells that are non-productively infected. In this image taken from the brain of a monkey infected with simian immunodeficiency virus, or SIV, the red-colored cells labeled with BrdU+ from the bone marrow, were non-productively infected. Yet they were present in the brain lesion of the animal alongside productively infected green SIVp28 cells and blue CD68+ macrophages. The tracking of the BrdU cells to the SIV brain lesions is a critical finding, placing the non-productively infected cells in sites of active viral replication.
Credit
<I>PLoS Pathogens</I>
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