Constitutive expression of p50 homodimer in freshly isolated human monocytes decreases with in vitro and in vivo differentiation: A possible mechanism influencing human immunodeficiency virus replication in monocytes and mature macrophages

Abstract

Human immunodeficiency virus type 1 (HIV-1) replicates more efficiently in vitro in differentiated macrophages than in freshly isolated monocytes. We investigated whether this may be partly explained by changes in expression of NF-κB with monocyte differentiation. We demonstrated that constitutive expression of NF-κB in primary human monocytes changed significantly with differentiation in vitro to monocyte-derived macrophages (MDMs) and differentiation in vivo to alveolar macrophages (AMs). Freshly isolated monocytes constitutively expressed high levels of transcriptionally inactive p50 homodimer which decreased with time in culture in favor of the transcriptionally active p50/p65 and p50/Re..