HIV infects astrocytes in vivo and egresses from the brain to the periphery
Fig 8
Astrocyte derived HIV egress under cART.
(A) Adult NSG mice were xenotransplanted with HIV+ astrocytes and treated with cART as depicted and cART treatment continued every other day until sacrifice at 3 or 4.5 weeks post reconstitution. cART interrupted animals were given 3 weeks of cART followed by 1.5 weeks of interruption before sacrifice. (B) HIV DNA was measured in the spleen by electrophoresis at time of sacrifice; with Kruskal-Wallis comparison (H = 9.185, p = 0.01) with Dunn post hoc test. * p < 0.05 from no cART, # p < 0.05 from cART interruption. HIV RNA was measured from spleen and shown in C; with Kruskal-Wallis test comparison (H = 5.904, p = 0.052). Data combined for three and four-and-a-half-week cART treatments as there were no statistical differences. n = 3–4 per group.