Telomerase activity in PBMC from HIV-infected individuals before and after start of treatment with nucleoside analogs. (A) Representative fluorescence curves showing telomerase activity in 100,000 cell equivalents from patient 2 (Table 2). M-ITAS at 145 bp. Lane 1, before therapy; lane 2, during therapy; lanes 3 and 4, GLC4 (100 cell equivalents) and lysis buffer. (B) Telomerase activity in eight HIV-infected individuals before and after the start of treatment with nucleoside analogs. Telomerase activity was analyzed in PBMC with the semiquantitative method and expressed as percentage of activity in the GLC4 cell line. Lines connect telomerase activity before and during treatment from the same patient. Bars with error bars indicate the mean telomerase activity ± the standard deviation of the population. (C) Telomere length of PBMC from the eight HIV-infected patients at the same time points as in (B). Telomere length was analyzed by Southern blot. Telomere length is expressed as change of telomere length in kilobases over time.
