Langerhans cells limit HIV invasion
Note published in The Journal of Cell Biology, Vol. 177, No. 1, 5 (March 2007), doi:10.1083/jcb.1771rr5, refers to de Witte* study in Nat. Med. doi:10.1038/nm1541. Further research shows that a suspected entry route for HIV is a dead end. Langerhans cells, rather than transmitting the virus to T cells, trap HIV-1 and thus act as a barrier to infection. The foreskin of the male penis has Langerhans cells, but they are removed, along with the foreskin, during circumcision.
Pro-circumcision advocates have long relied on the Langerhans cells as an entry point for HIV to justify the removal of the foreskin with its rich concentration of Langerhans cells. The basis for this thinking includes studies like the one published in The Journal of Immunology, 172: 2219-2224 in 2004, titled HIV-Infected Langerhans Cells Preferentially Transmit Virus to Proliferating Autologous CD4+ Memory T Cells Located within Langerhans Cell-T Cell Clusters.
* The cite to the de Witte study is de Witte L, Nabatov A, Pion M, Fluitsma D, de Jong M, de Gruijl T, Piguet V, van Kooyk Y, Geijtenbeek T (2007). "Langerin is a natural barrier to HIV-1 transmission by Langerhans cells". Nat Med 13 (3): 36771. doi:10.1038/nm1541.
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