Tonsil epithelial factors may influence oropharyngeal human immunodeficiency virus transmission.

ABSTRACT: Tonsil epithelium has been implicated in human immunodeficiency virus (HIV) pathogenesis, but its role in oral transmission remains controversial. To study characteristics of this tissue, which may influence susceptibility or resistance to HIV, we performed microarray analysis of the tonsil epithelium. Our data revealed that genes related to immune functions such as antibody production and antigen processing were increasingly expressed in tonsil compared with the epithelium of another oropharyngeal site, the gingival epithelium. Importantly, tonsil epithelium highly expressed genes associated with HIV entrapment and/or transmission, including the HIV co-receptor CXCR4 and the potential HIV-binding molecules FcRgammaIII, complement receptor 2, and various complement components. Immunohistoc

SUBMITTER: Moutsopoulos NM 

PROVIDER: S-EPMC1934526 | biostudies-literature | 2007 Aug

REPOSITORIES: biostudies-literature