Detection of Human Immunodeficiency Virus Type 1 Provirus in Mononuclear Cells by in Situ Polymerase Chain Reaction

SINCE human immunodeficiency virus type 1 (HIV-1) was first described as the etiologic agent of the acquired immunodeficiency syndrome (AIDS), 1 , 2 the numbers of cells infected in vivo with HIV-1 have been evaluated in patients in various clinical stages of disease. 3 , 4 These studies have sought to correlate levels of HIV-1 infection with the pathogenesis and the clinical course of the disease. The initial studies of Harper et al. 4 demonstrated that with the use of in situ hybridization for HIV-1-specific RNA, only 1 in 10,000 to 1 in 100,000 peripheral-blood mononuclear cells (PBMC) and lymph-node cells can be identified as positive for . . .