Research

Human CNS cultures exposed to HIV-1 gp120 reproduce dendritic injuries of HIV-1-associated dementia

Sam Iskander¹ , Kimberley A Walsh¹ and Robert R Hammond^1,2

¹  Department of Pathology, London Health Sciences Centre, University of Western Ontario, London, ON, Canada

²  Department of Clinical Neurological Sciences, London Health Sciences Centre, University of Western Ontario, London, ON, Canada

author email corresponding author email

Journal of Neuroinflammation 2004, 1:7doi:10.1186/1742-2094-1-7

Published:	27 May 2004

Abstract

HIV-1-associated dementia remains a common subacute to chronic central nervous system degeneration in adult and pediatric HIV-1 infected populations. A number of viral and host factors have been implicated including the HIV-1 120 kDa envelope glycoprotein (gp120). In human post-mortem studies using confocal scanning laser microscopy for microtubule-associated protein 2 and synaptophysin, neuronal dendritic pathology correlated with dementia. In the present study, primary human CNS cultures exposed to HIV-1 gp120 at 4 weeks in vitro suffered gliosis and dendritic damage analogous to that described in association with HIV-1-associated dementia.