Exposure to HIV is associated with altered 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:10.1093/infdis/jiae521

Exposure to HIV is associated with altered composition of maternal microchimeric T cells in infants

J Infect Dis. 2024 Oct 22:jiae521. doi: 10.1093/infdis/jiae521. Online ahead of print.

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.

PMID: 39435850
DOI: 10.1093/infdis/jiae521

Abstract

HIV exposed but uninfected infants (iHEU) display altered immunity and are at increased risk of infection. We previously reported that iHEU have decreased maternal microchimerism (MMc)-maternal cells transferred to the offspring in utero/during breastfeeding. We quantified MMc in T cell subpopulations in iHEU and unexposed infants (iHU) to determine whether a selective deficiency in MMc contributes to altered cellular immunity. Across all infants, MMc levels were highest in CD8+ T cells; however, the level of CD8+ T cell MMc was lower in iHEU versus iHU. In limited functional studies, we did not identify CMV-specific MMc during infant primary infection.

Keywords: HIV exposure; T cell immunity; infants; maternal microchimerism.

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Grants and funding

R21 AI157821/AI/NIAID NIH HHS/United States