Summary
Beside the risk of infection via HIV-1-contaminated blood, ophthalmologists are especially interested in the possibility of HIV-1 infection via tears. Therefore we tried to isolate HIV-1 from tears of 50 HIV-1-infected persons in different stages of disease by reverse transcriptase (RT) and by p24-antigen (p24-AG) in the cultures. Simultaneously we tried to isolate HIV-1 in the supernatant from peripheral blood lymphocytes (PBL), which was successful in 32 of the 50 examined specimens. HIV-1 could not be isolated from the tears of these persons. In addition, polymerasechain-reaction (PCR) was performed to detect proviral sequences (gag, pol, env) of HIV-1 in tears and blood of ten HIV-1-infected patients. While in all the examined patients gag, pol and env could be detected in the blood samples, only one tear sample was found positive for gag and pol DNA fragments. These results indicate that tears of HIV-1-positives contain extremely low quantities of tissue culture infectious doses (TCID) of HIV-1 in contrast to PBL. HIV-1 infection via tears therefore appears to be unlikely.
Zusammenfassung
Neben der Infektionsgefahr durch HIV-haltiges Blut interessiert Ophthalmologen vor allem auch die Möglichkeit einer Infektion über die Tränenflüssigkeit. Wir haben deshalb versucht, HIV-1 aus der Tränenflüssigkeit von 50 HIV-1-infizierten Personen in unterschiedlichem Stadium der Erkrankung zu isolieren und über Reverse Transkriptase (RT) sowie p24-Antigen (p24-AG) im Kulturüberstand nachzuweisen. Parallel hierzu wurde aus dem Kulturüberstand peripherer Blutlymphozyten (PBL) der jeweiligen Personen eine Virusisolierung versucht. Dies gelang in 32 der 50 Fälle. Dagegen konnte in keinem Fall HIV-1 aus den Tränen der entsprechenden Personen isoliert werden. Zusätzlich wurde versucht, bei 10 HIV-1-infizierten Patienten in Tränenflüssigkeit und PBL provirale Sequenzen (gag, pol, env) von HIV-1 mittels der Polymerase-Ketten-Reaktion (PCR) nachzuweisen. Während dies in allen 10 Fällen mit PBL gelang, konnte nur in einem Fall HIV-DNA über gag- und pol-Amplifikate in der Tränenflüssigkeit nachgewiesen werden. Diese Ergebnisse sprechen für einen niedrigen Gehalt der Tränenflüssigkeit an gewebeinfektiösen Einheiten von HIV-1 im Vergleich mit dem Blut HIV-1-infizierter Personen. Damit scheint eine Infektion über den Kontakt mit Tränenflüssigkeit HIV-1-Infizierter weiter unwahrscheinlich.
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Supported by the Bundesministerium für Forschung und Technik, Germanny, FKZ III-002-089/FVP.
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Mueller, A.J., Klauss, V., Geier, S. et al. Infrequent detection of HIV-1 components in tears compared to blood of HIV-1-infected persons. Infection 20, 249–252 (1992). https://doi.org/10.1007/BF01710788
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DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/BF01710788