Since HIV infection itself alters epigenetic processes in the immune system, the research team wondered whether a distinct DNA methylation profile, a major epigenetic modification where methyl groups are added to DNA, occurs in those with HIV associated - cognitive impairment and whether it exists in
distinct immune cell populations from the blood.
Through image analysis of breast tumors and TDLNs, we have found that
immune cell populations as well as their spatial distributions and clustering patterns have strong correlation with clinical outcome.
Specific members of the lung microbiota have been shown to stimulate
discrete immune cell populations, and to correlate with general indicators of inflammation in lung transplant and non-lung transplant populations.
«[It] supports this idea that chronic inflammation in children, perhaps through exposure to bacterial endotoxin in the gut, is causing these
different immune cell populations to be non-responsive to cytokine stimulation,» Petri said.