HIV-1 infection of gut Th17 cells.

(A-B) Relative TF HIV-1 susceptibility of Th17 versus Th1 cells. LPMCs were infected with HIV-1 CH040.c and (A) the percentage of intracellular p24+ cells were evaluated by flow cytometry in IL17 versus IFNγ producing cells at 4 dpi. (B) Data were analyzed using 2-tailed paired Student’s t test; **, p<0.01; *, p<0.05. (C-D) Expression of Th17 differentiation genes. Polarization of blood Th0 cells into Th17 cells was associated with (C) gene upregulation (n = 20 genes) and (D) gene downregulation (n = 18 genes) [42]. These gene lists were extracted from [42] and subjected to GSEA. (C) Upregulated Th17 genes were induced (NOM = 1.54, p = 0.05) in microbe-exposed gut CD4+ T cells. (D) By contrast, downregulated Th17 genes, including RNAses 2, 3 and 6 (in red), were not significantly perturbed (p>0.05). Higher color intensities indicate higher magnitudes of expression changes.