Biological significance of the expression of HIV-related chemokine coreceptors (CCR5 and CXCR4) and their ligands by human hematopoietic cell lines

The aim of this study was to learn more about the role of the HIV-related chemokine-chemokine receptor axes in human hematopoiesis. To address this issue we phenotyped 35 selected hematopoietic cell lines for the expression of CD4, CXCR4 and CCR5. We next evaluated the functionality of these chemokine receptors by calcium flux and chemotaxis assays, and by the ability of SDF-1α, MIP-1β and RANTES to influence the growth of the cells expressing CXCR4 and/or CCR5. Lastly, we examined whether human hematopoietic cell lines may secrete some HIV-related chemokines, and whether endogenously secreted chemokines might interfere with the infectability of hematopoietic cells by X4 and R5 HIV strains. These results demonstrate that: (1) HIV-related receptors are widely expressed on human hematopoietic cell lines; (2) stimulation of CXCR4 by SDF-1 induces calcium flux and chemotaxis in several hematopoietic cell lines more efficiently than stimulation of CCR5 by receptor-specific β-chemokines; (3) chemokines do not regulate proliferation of the hematopoietic cells; and finally (4) infectability of the hematopoietic cells by HIV-1 may be auto-modulated by endogenously secreted chemokines. These data shed more light on the role of HIV-related chemokine-chemokine receptors axes in human hematopoiesis and interaction of hematopoietic cells with HIV.