Figure 5

Analysis of BLT humanized mice inoculated with a high dose of nef (−) or wild-type LAI. (A) Each line depicts longitudinal plasma viral load data from individual BLT humanized mice infected with 600,000 TCIU of LAINefdd (closed symbols) or LAI (open symbols). All LAINefdd and LAI infected mice showed detectable viremia by two weeks post-exposure. (B) Each line depicts the percentage of CD4⁺ T cells in peripheral blood over time where each animal’s symbol is matched to the mice in (A). Mice infected with a high dose of LAINefdd showed minimal changes in CD4⁺ T cell percentages. In contrast, BLT humanized mice inoculated with an equal dose of LAI exhibited a very rapid decline of CD4⁺ T cells. Asterisks indicate that essentially all of these cells are eventually depleted in BLT humanized mice infected with 600,000 TCIU of LAI. (C) Naïve BLT mice (n = 5 in PB, spleen and HTO or n = 4 in LN) and BLT mice inoculated with 600,000 TCIU of LAINefdd (n = 4) exhibited similar levels of CD4⁺ cells, while mice inoculated with the same dose of LAI (n = 3) exhibited a drastic reduction in these cells. Shown are the percentages of human CD4⁺ T cells present in peripheral blood, lymph nodes and spleen, as well as the percentages of CD4⁺CD8^- and CD4⁺CD8⁺ thymocytes in the human thymic organoid. The percent of CD4⁺ T cells in peripheral blood or tissues was relative to total CD3⁺ T cells while the percent of CD4⁺CD8^- and CD4⁺CD8⁺ thymocytes was relative to total thymocytes. One-way ANOVA with three Bonferroni multiple comparisons tests was performed to compare the results within each tissue. If no difference was detected, the comparison is unmarked (alpha = 0.05). Comparisons yielding significant differences are represented by a line connecting the arrows above the respective bars (**p < 0.01).