vitro antioxidant treatment recovers proliferative responses of anergic CD4+ lymphocytes from human immunodeficiency virus-infected individuals

Oxidative stress has been proposed t o be involved in the immunologic defect observed in effector cells of the immune system as well as in lymphocyte cell death and viral replica-tion in human immunodeficiency virus (HIV)-infected pa-tients. Because thiol-containing antioxidants such as Nace-tyl-L-cysteine have been shown to have beneficial effects on CD4+ lymphocyte survival and to inhibit programmed cell death and HIV-1 replication, they may play a role in therapeu-tic strategies of this disease. In this work we have studied the cellular thiol levels and the effect of in vitro antioxidant treatment of purified CD4 ' lymphocytes from HIV-infected patients, and correlated these parameters to proliferative responses and programmed cell death. We show that CD4' lymphocytes from HIV-infected patients display impaired proliferative responses and a significant decrease in cellula