Examinning the correlation between plasmacytoid dendritic cell and CD4+, CD8+ lymphocytes counts among HIV-infected patients

Background: plasmacytoid dendritic cell s, responsible for primary antiviral immunity, are important in controlling HIV infection. The number of circulating plasmacytoid dendritic cells among HIV-infected patients were investigated and the correlation between these plasmacytoid cells and CD4+, CD8+ lymphocytes was evaluated. Materials and Methods: This descriptive study was carried out on 53 patients with HIV infection referring to the central laboratory of Iranian Blood Transfusion Organization and 30 healthy controls. Two color flowcytometric analysis were performed to separate the plasmacytoid dendritic cells and then statistical analysis was performed to determine the mean difference and coloration coefficient. To pairwise mean comparisons Univariate one-way ANOVA was used and the correlation between parameters was performed using Pearson-rank test. Results: Progressive decrease of plasmacytoid dendritic cells was in parallel with CD4+ lymphocyte decrease. The plasmacytoid dendritic cell count was correlated with CD4+T cell count (r=0.574, p Conclusion: The correlation between CD4+ lymphocyte count and plasmacytoid dendritic cell count in HIV patients may reflect a dependent homeostasis between these cells.