Lymph node involution, T-cell adaptation and T-cell death in HIV infection

Abstract

Fibrotic tissue involution occurs in a large variety of chronic diseases. As the final phase of follicular atrophy and depletion, a diffuse fibrosis is the more severe consequence of the chronic process of lymph node involution that characterizes HIV infection. This review focuses on the comparison between HIV-induced lymph node fibrosis and other chronic fibroproliferative diseases, in terms of cell types participating in the process and signaling intermediates that together cause the deposition of collagen and remodel normal tissue architecture. Given that the histological quantification of this type of fibrosis cannot be easily introduced as a routine method in clinical pathology, we will discuss the possibility of exploiting some functional modifications, which express the adaptation of T cells to the fibrotic/hypoxic environment, as biochemical markers of the evolution of lymph node damage.