Focused examination of the intestinal lamina propria yields greater molecular insight into mechanisms underlying SIV induced immune dysfunction

In this study three Indian rhesus macaques were infected with Simian Immunodeficiency Virus (SIVmac251). This generates a chronic infection mirroring AIDS in the animals. Prior to infection (day 0) and at two different time-points post-infection (day 21 and day 90), intestinal resection biopsies were performed. The intestinal tissue was then separated into different sub-sections including lamina-propria lymphocytes (LPL), intra-epithelial lymphocytes (IEL), stroma or matrix and epithelium. In this study we report the genome-wide transcriptional response at the two different time-points, specific to LPL, relative to pre-infection samples. For this purpose we have used the Affymetrix Rhesus Macaque GeneChip. 3 Rhesus Macaques prior to infection and 21 and 90 days of infection