Effect of recombinant human growth hormone on acute and chronic human
immunodeficiency virus infection in vitro
J Laurence, B Grimison and A Gonenne
Laboratory for AIDS Virus Research, New York Hospital, NY.
Growth hormone (somatotropin) is a potent anabolic protein currently being
evaluated clinically in cachexia associated with malignancy and human
immunodeficiency virus (HIV) disease. Growth hormone can also lead to
enhancement of lectin-mediated cellular proliferation, macrophage
activation, and cytokine induction, events linked to induction of latent
HIV in vitro. We thus explored the ability of recombinant human growth
hormone (rhGH) to affect viral replication in acute and chronic HIV
infection, and to alter transcription at the HIV- 1 long terminal repeat
(LTR). A clone of promonocytic cells, chronically infected with HIV-1 and
susceptible to viral induction by a variety of cytokines and protein kinase
C activators, was unperturbed by rhGH used over broad concentrations (10 to
500 ng/mL) and time intervals. This unresponsiveness paralleled the lack of
effect of rhGH on HIV-associated trans-activation in both monocytic and
CD4+ T-cell lines. In contrast, rhGH enhanced viral replication in acutely
infected peripheral blood mononuclear cells (PBMC) by twofold to 20-fold,
albeit having no adverse effect on the antiviral efficacy of zidovudine
(AZT). Augmentation of HIV growth correlated with stimulation of cellular
DNA synthetic responses and an increase in tumor necrosis factor-alpha
(TNF- alpha) secretion. These data are discussed in the context of ongoing
clinical trials of rhGH in HIV-seropositive individuals with wasting
syndromes.
Volume 79,
Issue 2,
pp. 467-472,
01/15/1992
Copyright © 1992 by The American Society of Hematology
