Short communication: persistence of high blood levels of the chemokines CCL2, CCL19, and CCL20 during the course of HIV infection.

Dendritic cells (DCs) are important mediators of the immune response against HIV and yet blood DC numbers fall substantially during HIV infection. Here we report that blood levels of the DC-tissue tropic chemokines monocyte chemotactic protein (MCP-1/CCL2), macrophage inflammatory proteins (MIP-3α/CCL20), and MIP-3β/CCL19 remained elevated throughout the course of HIV infection suggesting that the relatively low levels of blood circulating DCs may be due to active recruitment of these cells to peripheral sites to fight disease progression.