DIET, IMMUNODEFICIENCY-VIRUS INFECTION, AND CARDIOVASCULAR RISK

Harvard Medical School, Boston MA

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Abstract

This subproject is one of many research subprojects utilizing the resources provided by a Center grant funded by NIH/NCRR. The subproject and investigator (PI) may have received primary funding from another NIH source, and thus could be represented in other CRISP entries. The institution listed is for the Center, which is not necessarily the institution for the investigator. Both high-fat high-cholesterol diet (AD) and HIV infection have been implicated in the pathogenesis of cardiovascular disease (CVD) although the relative contribution and mechanisms of each process remains in dispute. Overall, there remains insufficient data on the relationship between atherosclerosis, HIV, AD, cardiac inflammatory and oxidative stress, and vascular remodeling in human. Most prior studies were retrospective and did not or could not collect all data on known CHD risk factors. Moreover, the study populations were heterogeneous in duration of HIV infection, co-morbid conditions, medications influencing endpoints, and lifestyle, which made extremely difficult to draw conclusion of relative contribution of each cause. To avoid these problems we have designed a study using a monkey model, which allow us controlling significantly more factors as were possible in human. Nonhuman primate models of atherosclerosis have been used in order to provide information that is highly relevant to humans. Thus, monkeys are ideal for studying the effects of SIV- infection on a normal and on an AD background in depth, which is not possible in humans.