Effect of different human immunodeficiency virus type-1 (HIV-1) isolates on long-term bone marrow haemopoiesis

Haemopoietic cytopenias are a frequent occurrence in human immunodeficiency virus type-1 (HIV-1) induced disease. In order to examine the possible direct inhibition of marrow haemopoiesis by HIV-1, we have investigated the effect of HIV-1 infection on myelopoiesis in long-term bone marrow cultures. In vitro exposure of normal marrow cultures to three different lymphocytotropic HIV-1 isolates resulted in productive infection, as demonstrated by a progressive increase of gag p24 antigen. In these experiments, ICR-3 isolate, but not LAV' or NL4-3 isolates, accelerated the loss of non-adherent cells. A differential ability of these HIV-1 isolates to suppress myelopoiesis was confirmed in long-term cultures in which virus was added continuously. In these cultures, ICR-3, and to a lesser extent also NL4-3, but not LAV', induced a progressive decrease in the number of total non-adherent cells as well as nonadherent colony forming units-granulocyte/macrophage (CFU-GM). Furthermore, exposure of normal purified CD34⁺ cells to ICR-3 induced defects in their ability to form haemopoietic colonies; this inhibitory effect was significantly relieved by pretreatment of ICR-3 with an anti-gp120 antibody. Similar exposure of CD34⁺ cells to LAV' and NL4-3 induced no such defects. These data indicate that some HIV-1 isolates can impair bone marrow haemopoiesis in a dose-dependent fashion, acting, at least in part, at the level of haemopoietic stem/progenitor cells.