The effect of serum on the HIV enhancing of defensins.

Pseudotyped HIV-1JR-FL luciferase reporter virus was incubated with or without defensins (5.6 µM) in the presence of FBS or human serum (HS) at various concentrations for 1 h. FBS or HS at a final concentration of 10% was added to the virus-defensin mixture before exposure to HeLa-CD4-CCR5. Luciferase activity was determined 48 h after infection. Results are expressed as fold increase compared to samples with the same concentration of FBS or HS in the absence of defensins. Assays were performed on triplicate cultures; results represent two independent experiments (mean ± SD).