{"id":6672,"date":"2002-09-11T20:24:52","date_gmt":"2002-09-11T19:24:52","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/moomango.co.uk\/htb\/?p=6672"},"modified":"2014-06-04T10:17:26","modified_gmt":"2014-06-04T10:17:26","slug":"growth-hormone-effective-in-increasing-thymic-activity","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/i-base.info\/htb\/6672","title":{"rendered":"Growth hormone effective in increasing thymic activity"},"content":{"rendered":"<p><strong>Brian Boyle MD, for HIVandHepatitis.com<\/strong><\/p>\n<p><strong>In many patients, treatment with highly active antiretroviral therapy (HAART) can lead to a significant recovery from the immunosuppression associated with advanced HIV disease. Still, some patients only experience a partial recovery, if any.<\/strong><\/p>\n<p>Several studies have indicated that thymic function, which may be impaired by age, HIV and other factors, is critical in determining immune recovery on HAART. In a study published in AIDS, investigators found that growth hormone, which plays a role in thymopoiesis, may increase thymic activity and CD4+ T cell counts in HIV-infected patients treated with HAART.<\/p>\n<p>The prospective, open-label study, enrolled five HIV-infected men with a mean age of 52 years and CD4+ T cell count of 419 cells\/mm3. All of the enrolled patients had been on stable ART for 18 months or more prior to enrollment in the study.<\/p>\n<p>The patients were treated with growth hormone for six to 12 months and outcomes were compared to six closely matched patients drawn from a historical control.<\/p>\n<p>The investigators found that growth hormone treatment was associated with a marked increase in thymic mass in all patients. This increase was evident by three months after growth hormone initiation and remained increased through the completion of therapy.<\/p>\n<p>An analysis performed at six months of treatment showed a significant increase in thymic density and a mean increase in thymic volume of 88%. No similar changes were seen in the thymus of the control subjects. In addition to increases in thymic mass, na\u00efve CD4+ T cells also increased significantly in all patients during growth hormone therapy. Relative to baseline levels, the mean absolute gain in naive CD4+ cell percentage was 6% at six months, 10% at nine months, and 12% at 12 months of treatment.<\/p>\n<p>The authors conclude, \u201cAt present, we believe that HIV-1-infected patients on effective ART, with radiological evidence of thymic atrophy, and with a low CD4 cell count have the greatest chance of deriving immunological benefit from [growth hormone]-mediated enhancement of thymopoiesis. In particular, individuals on effective ART who have not experienced a gain in CD4 T cells despite prolonged virological suppression may especially benefit from [growth hormone] therapy.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cHowever, it is possible that such intervention may be ineffective if thymic or bone marrow reserves cannot be restored because of irreversible destruction caused by HIV-1 or advanced age.\u201d<\/p>\n<p>Reference:<\/p>\n<p>Napolitano LA, Lo JC, Gotway MB, Mulligan K et al. Increased thymic mass and circulating naive CD4 T cells in HIV-1-infected adults treated with growth hormone. AIDS 2002 May 24;16(8):1103-11<br \/>\n<a href=\"http:\/\/www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov:80\/entrez\/query.fcgi?cmd=Retrieve&amp;db=PubMed&amp;list_uids=12004268&amp;dopt=Abstract\">http:\/\/www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov:80\/entrez\/query.fcgi?cmd=Retrieve&amp;db=PubMed&amp;list_uids=12004268&amp;dopt=Abstract<\/a><\/p>\n<p>Copyright 2002 by HIV and Hepatitis.com. All Rights Reserved.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>Brian Boyle MD, for HIVandHepatitis.com In many patients, treatment with highly active antiretroviral therapy (HAART) can lead to a significant recovery from the immunosuppression associated with advanced HIV disease. Still, some patients only experience a partial recovery, if any. Several &hellip;<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":4,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[15],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-6672","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-basic-science-and-immunology"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/i-base.info\/htb\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/6672","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/i-base.info\/htb\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/i-base.info\/htb\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/i-base.info\/htb\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/4"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/i-base.info\/htb\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=6672"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/i-base.info\/htb\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/6672\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/i-base.info\/htb\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=6672"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/i-base.info\/htb\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=6672"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/i-base.info\/htb\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=6672"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}