Expression of HIV receptors, alternate receptors and co-receptors on tonsillar epithelium: implications for HIV binding and primary oral infection

Table 1 Qualitative immunocytochemical analysis of key cell surface macromolecules expressed on human palatine tonsil.

Tonsil	Age	CXCR4			CCR5			HS			CD4			IL-8			Hsp27
		SE	CE	T	SE	CE	T	SE	CE	T	SE	CE	T	SE	CE	T	SE	CE	T
1	3 F	i	+	i	i	+	i	+	+	-	-	-	+	i	+	i	+	+	-
2	4 F	i	+	i	i	+	i	+	+	-	-	-	+	+	+	i	+	+	-
3	5 F	i	+	i	i	+	i	+	+	-	-	-	+	i	+	i	+	+	i
4	6 M	i	+	i	i	+	i	+	+	-	-	-	+	i	+	i	+	+	i
5	15	i	+	i	i	+	i	+	+	-	-	-	+	i	+	i	+	+	i
6	17	i	+	i	i	+	i	+	+	-	-	-	+	+	+	i	+	+	-
7	17 F	i	+	i	i	+	i	+	+	-	-	-	+	+	+	i	+	+	i
8a	18 F	i	+	i	i	+	i	+	+	-	-	-	+	+	+	i	+	+	-
8b	18 F	i	+	i	i	+	i	+	+	-	-	-	+	+	+	i	+	+	-
9	20 F	i	+	i	i	+	i	+	+	-	-	-	+	+	+	i	+	+	i
Frequency		9/9i	9/9+	9/9i	9/9i	9/9+	9/9i	9/9+	9/9+	9/9-	9/9-	9/9-	9/9+	4/9i 5/9+	9/9+	9/9i	9/9+	9/9+	5/9i 0/9+

SE: stratified squamous epithelium; CE: cryptal epithelium; T: T cells; +: uniform strong positive expression; i: intermittent strong positive expression; -: no detectable expression. SE and CE were strongly and uniformly positive with a polyclonal antibody to cytokeratins; there was no detectable expression of cytokeratins in T cell populations (data not shown). Complete T cell populations were identified with anti-CD3 and most of the T cells were CD45RO positive (data not shown). Results for 8a and 8b were obtained from two independent tissue blocks derived from the same piece of tonsil. Specific staining conditions and optimized antibody dilutions are presented in Methods. In the "Age" column, M and F refer to male and female respectively, where known.

ISSN: 1743-422X