Exposure to HIV alters the composition of maternal microchimeric T cells in infants

Blair Armistead; M Quinn Peters; John Houck; Marc Carlson; Christina Balle; Nolawit Mulugeta; Clive M Gray; Heather B Jaspan; Whitney E Harrington

doi:10.1101/2024.03.01.583002

Exposure to HIV alters the composition of maternal microchimeric T cells in infants

bioRxiv [Preprint]. 2024 Mar 4:2024.03.01.583002. doi: 10.1101/2024.03.01.583002.

Authors

Blair Armistead¹, M Quinn Peters¹, John Houck¹, Marc Carlson², Christina Balle³, Nolawit Mulugeta^{1

4}, Clive M Gray^{3

5}, Heather B Jaspan^{1

3

4

6}, Whitney E Harrington^{1

4

6}

Affiliations

¹ Center for Global Infectious Disease Research, Seattle Children's Research Institute, Seattle, Washington, USA.
² Research Scientific Computing, Enterprise Analytics, Seattle Children's Research Institute, Seattle, Washington, USA.
³ Division of Immunology, Department of Pathology, Institute of Infectious Disease and Molecular Medicine, University of Cape Town, Cape Town, South Africa.
⁴ Department of Global Health, University of Washington, Seattle, Washington, USA.
⁵ Division of Immunology, Biomedical Research Institute, Stellenbosch University, Cape Town, South Africa.
⁶ Department of Pediatrics, University of Washington, Seattle, Washington, USA.

Abstract

Infants exposed to HIV but uninfected (iHEU) display altered cellular immunity and are at increased risk of infection through poorly understood mechanisms. We previously reported that iHEU have lower levels of maternal microchimerism (MMc), maternal cells transferred to the offspring in utero/during breastfeeding. We evaluated MMc levels in T cell subsets in iHEU and HIV unexposed infants (iHU) to determine whether a selective deficiency in MMc may contribute to altered cellular immunity. Across all infants, MMc levels were highest in CD8+ T cells; however, the level of MMc in the CD8 T cell subset was significantly lower in iHEU compared to iHU.

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