Cellular localization of simian immunodeficiency virus in lymphoid tissues. I. Immunohistochemistry and electron microscopy.

Simian immunodeficiency virus (SIV) is a lentivirus with genetic relatedness to the human immunodeficiency viruses (HIV-1 and HIV-2). It induces a fatal syndrome in rhesus monkeys that closely parallels the clinical course of AIDS in humans. The authors used double-labeling immunohistochemical procedures on rhesus lymph node and spleen taken during different time periods after SIV infection to localize the p27 gag protein to specific cellular immunophenotypes. In animals with follicular hyperplasia, viral protein was found associated predominantly with follicular dendritic cells. Many of these cells showed ultrastructural alterations consisting of swollen dendritic processes containing electron-dense material. Lentiviral particles were found associated with this cell type only rarely. In lymphoid tissues with other histopathologic changes, macrophages and multinucleate giant cells were the predominant cell types containing detectable quantities of viral protein; smaller numbers of p27+ lymphocytes were present. Ultrastructurally, viral particles were found within the extracellular space adjacent to tissue macrophages and within membrane-bound vacuoles of giant cells and tissue macrophages. These results show that certain histologic patterns seen during the course of infection correlate with the localization of viral antigen to specific cellular immunophenotypes and that during the disease course, viral protein is preferentially localized in sections of lymph node and spleen to cells of the macrophage and dendritic cell lineages.