SIV/SHIV Infection Triggers Vascular Inflammation, Diminished Expression of Krüppel-like Factor 2 and Endothelial Dysfunction.
Endothelial Krüppel-like factor 2 (KLF2) expression is reduced in the rhesus macaque (RM) aorta infected with simian immunodeficiency virus (SIV) or simian-human immunodeficiency virus (SHIV). A, Anti-KLF2 antibody staining (Ab+) of human primary endothelial nuclei was blocked by incubating with target KLF2 peptide. B, C, Paraffin sections of descending thoracic aortas of SIV/SHIV infected (B), or uninfected (C) RMs were stained with rabbit polyclonal anti-KLF2 (B, C,upper) or rabbit (Rb) immunoglobulin (IgG) control (C, lower) followed by anti-rabbit fluorescein isothyocyanate-conjugated antibody and DAPI and examined using epifluorescence microscopy (EVOSFL; Life Technologies) with a ×40 objective (inset, ×100). D, Summary data showing normalized ratios of nuclear KLF2 (green) to nuclear DAPI (blue) fluorescence from all animals. In each aortic specimen, 100 endothelial cells were examined, and the mean ratio was summarized for each SIV-infected (red), SHIV-infected (black), and uninfected (blue) animal. Data were analyzed using 2-tailed Mann–Whitney tests; *P < .005. Abbreviations: DAPI, 4',6-diamidino-2-phenylindole; EC, endothelial cell. Copyright © The Author 2015. Published by Oxford University Press for the Infectious Diseases Society of America.
