Ashley T. Haase, ^* Keith Henry, Mary Zupancic, Gerald Sedgewick, Russell A. Faust, Holly Melroe, Winston Cavert, Kristin Gebhard, Katherine Staskus, Zhi-Qiang Zhang, Peter J. Dailey, Henry H. Balfour Jr., Alejo Erice, Alan S. Perelson

Tracking human immunodeficiency virus-type 1 (HIV-1) infection at the cellular level in tissue reservoirs provides opportunities to better understand the pathogenesis of infection and to rationally design and monitor therapy. A quantitative technique was developed to determine viral burden in two important cellular compartments in lymphoid tissues. Image analysis and in situ hybridization were combined to show that in the presymptomatic stages of infection there is a large, relatively stable pool of virions on the surfaces of follicular dendritic cells and a smaller pool of productively infected cells. Despite evidence of constraints on HIV-1 replication in the infected cell population in lymphoid tissues, estimates of the numbers of these cells and the virus they could produce are consistent with the quantities of virus that have been detected in the bloodstream. The cellular sources of virus production and storage in lymphoid tissues can now be studied with this approach over the course of infection and treatment.

A. T. Haase, M. Zupancic, W. Cavert, K. Gebhard, K. Staskus, Z.-Q. Zhang, Department of Microbiology, University of Minnesota Medical School, Minneapolis, MN 55455, USA.
K. Henry and H. Melroe, HIV Program, St. Paul-Ramsey Medical Center, St. Paul, MN 55101, USA, and Department of Medicine, University of Minnesota Medical School, Minneapolis, MN 55455, USA.
G. Sedgewick, Department of Cell Biology and Neuroanatomy, University of Minnesota Medical School, Minneapolis, MN 55455, USA.
R. A. Faust, Department of Otolaryngology, University of Minnesota Medical School, Minneapolis, MN 55455, USA.
P. J. Dailey, Chiron Corporation, Emeryville, CA 94608, USA.
H. H. Balfour Jr. and A. Erice, Department of Laboratory Medicine and Pathology, University of Minnesota Medical School, Minneapolis, MN 55455, USA.
A. S. Perelson, Theoretical Biology and Biophysics, Los Alamos National Laboratory, Los Alamos, NM 87545, USA.
^*   To whom correspondence should be addressed.