Analysis of the adult thymus in reconstitution of T lymphocytes in HIV-1 infection
J. Clin. Invest. Barton F. Haynes, et al. 103:453 doi:10.1172/JCI5201 [Go to this article.]

Figure 3
HIV-1–expressing cells are present in the thymic perivascular space as well as in the true epithelial thymus. In situ hybridization for HIV-1 mRNA was performed in patient no. 2 in combination with immunohistological analysis for antikeratin antibody reactivity to identify the true thymic epithelial space (keratin⁺) and the thymic perivascular space (keratin^–). There are cells with HIV-1 RNA both in the islands of true thymus with brown-stained keratin⁺ epithelium (e) as well as in the intervening perivascular space (P). In the developed radioautograph after in situ hybridization with radiolabeled HIV-1–specific probe, cells with HIV-1 RNA that bound probe have overlying collections of silver grains. Epipolarized light reflected from the grains imparts a yellow color to the cells.