Secretory Leukocyte Proteinase Inhibitor Expression in AIDS Patient

Objective: To analyse the expression of SLPI in the submandibular glands of patients who died from AIDS and relate these findings to the presence of infectious and inflammatory processes.

Methods: 36 AIDS and 10 HIV non infected patients were autopsied and the submandibular gland analysed. Submandibular gland samples were fixed in buffered 10% formalin solution for 24hours and routinely processed slides were stained with H&E, Z-N and Grocott stains. No microbiological studies were performed. Expression of SLPI was revealed by immunohistochemistry using a monoclonal anti_SLPI antibody. Statistical analysis was performed with SPSS 13.0 software. A multiple comparison using one-way analysis of variance followed by tukey’s test was applied for comparison of SLPI among different groups.

Results: There was a higher expression of SLPI in AIDS patients with CMV infections (% of stained area, mean±SD : 37.37±14.45) when compared with all other groups (p=0.009). There was no significant differences between control subjects (22.70±9.42%) and AIDS patients without histologic alterations (18.10±7.58%), with chronic nonspecific alterations (17.13±5.36%) or mycobacterial infection (21.09±4.66%).

Conclusions: Cytomegalovirus infection increases SLPI expression in the submandibular galnds of AIDS patients showing a co-relation between HIV and CMV in AIDS patients.