Figure 1
Replicative spread of HIV-Wt and HIV-Env-Tr712 in different T-cells. A. Schematic depiction of the Env proteins from HIV-Wt and HIV-Env-Tr712 B. Replication kinetics of HIV-Wt (circles) and HIV-Env-Tr712 (triangles) in MT-4 cells (p) and H9 cells (np) below. Cells were infected with equal amounts of virus (equivalent to 100 ng p24 per 106 cells) and washed at 5 h p.i. Newly produced virions released into the culture supernatants at the times indicated were quantified by CA-ELISA. Note that at 3-4 d post infection, MT-4 cells were infected to 100% with both viruses (as established by indirect immunofluorescence) and succumbed to HIV induced cytotoxicity. Infection of H9 cells with HIV-Wt reached 100% at 4-5 d post-infection whereas infection with HIV-Env-Tr712 virions (produced in permissive 293T cells) resulted in initial infection of only a low percentage (< 5%) of cells which subsequently vanished from the culture. The cut-off of the assay lies at 0.01 ng/ml.