Elsevier

Virology

Volume 232, Issue 2, 9 June 1997, Pages 379-384
Virology

Regular Article
Cell Proliferation Is Not Required for Productive HIV-1 Infection of Macrophages

https://doi.org/10.1006/viro.1997.8584Get rights and content
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Abstract

Lentiviruses, including HIV-1, are considered a rare example of retroviruses which do not require cell proliferation for their replication. However, this notion was questioned in several publications where productive HIV-1 infection was found to be restricted to a small fraction of macrophages with proliferative capacity. Since the mode of HIV-1 replication in macrophages is of great clinical relevance, we performed a single-cell analysis of HIV-1 replication and [3H]thymidine incorporation. Our results indicate that while 17% macrophages were detected as HIV-1 DNA-positive 12 hr after infection, only 2% of those cells had incorporated tritium, about the same percentage as in the uninfected cell population. Forty-eight hours after infection, 38% macrophages were HIV-1 DNA-positive and 47% of those had incorporated tritium, while the percentage of tritium-positive uninfected cells did not change (1%). These results demonstrate directly that HIV-1 DNA does not colocalize with [3H]thymidine and support the notion that cell proliferation is not required for HIV-1 infection of macrophages.

Cited by (0)

H. A. Erlich, Ed.

1

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