Retroviruses of Human A.I.D.S. and Related Animal Diseases

Je"ro6me E. Groopman
Born 1952, MD, Columbia College of Physicians and
Surgeons 1976.
Associate Professor of Medicine, Harvard Medical School
Boston, Massachusetts.
HIV and
impaired hematopoiesis

We have pursued two major issues
regarding mechanisms whereby infection with human immunodeficiency virus (HIV) may result in impaired blood
cell production. We have attempted to
determine which cellular elements that
comprise the bone marrow stroma may
be susceptible in vitro to HIV infection.
We have focused on bone marrow fibroblasts, either derived from aspirates of
normal marrow or represented by the
BL cell line, a transformed stroma cell
line that constitutively produces certain
hematopoietic growth factors [1]. In this
regard, we found that bone marrow
stromal fibroblasts, as well as the BL

line, were susceptible to infection with
either HIV-1 or HIV-2 in vitro. The
second issue we addressed was whether
HIV infection of peripheral monocytemacrophages, or infection of mixed
populations of peripheral blood T cells
and monocytes, resulted in dysregulated
production of certain important regulatory cytokines, such as interleukin-1
beta, tumor necrosis factor alpha, and
interleukin-6 [2]. We were unable to
determine abnormalities in the production of these three cytokines following
HIV infection using different isolates of
the retrovirus or following exposure of
the cells to purified recombinant HIV

Jerome E. GROOPMAN, Jean-Michel MOLINA. David T. SCADDEN.
Division of Hematology/Oncology New England Deaconess Hospital, Associate Professor of Medicine
Harvard Medical School, Bosion, MA.

QUATRIEME COLLOQUE DES CENT GARDES - 1989