Characterization of pDCs and mDCs in spleens from HIV⁻ and HIV⁺ patients. (A) Definition of pDCs and mDCs by flow cytometry. Spleen mononuclear cells were gated by size and granularity (left panel). Lineage⁻ HLA-DR⁺ cells were gated (middle panel) and CD11c and CD123 expression analyzed on this population (right panel). (B) Quantitative analysis of pDCs in HIV⁺ patients. Correlation between pDC density and proviral load in 6 HIV⁺ patients (proviral load was not available for patient R). (C) Quantitative analysis of BDCA2 specific labeling on spleen sections. Results obtained from 5 HIV⁻ patients (total sections analyzed: 17, total area analyzed: 55 574 729 μm²), and 6 HIV⁺ patients (for groups 1 and 2, respectively 3 patients each, total sections analyzed: 9 and 11, total area analyzed: 29 421 386 and 35 959 471 μm²). (D) Endocytosis capacity of spleen pDCs and mDCs. Endocytosis of dextran-fluorescein isothiocyanate by spleen pDCs (left) and mDCs (right) in an HIV⁻ (i) and HIV⁺ (ii) patient. pDCs and mDCs were defined as in panel A. Graphs are representative of n = 6 HIV⁻ and n = 3 HIV⁺ patients.