PT - JOURNAL ARTICLE AU - Sonwabile Dzanibe AU - Katie Lennard AU - Agano Kiravu AU - Melanie S.S. Seabrook AU - Berenice Alinde AU - Susan P. Holmes AU - Catherine A. Blish AU - Heather B. Jaspan AU - Clive M. Gray TI - Stereotypic expansion of T<sub>regulatory</sub> and Th<sub>17</sub> cells during infancy is disrupted by HIV exposure and gut epithelial damage AID - 10.1101/2021.05.03.442468 DP - 2021 Jan 01 TA - bioRxiv PG - 2021.05.03.442468 4099 - http://biorxiv.org/content/early/2021/05/04/2021.05.03.442468.short 4100 - http://biorxiv.org/content/early/2021/05/04/2021.05.03.442468.full AB - Few studies have investigated immune cell ontogeny throughout the period of increased vulnerability to infections in early life. Here, we evaluated the dynamics of two critical T cell populations, regulatory T (Treg) cells and Th17 cells, over the first 9 months of life. We observed that Treg and Th17 cells developed in a synchronous fashion. Infants exposed to HIV in utero (iHEU), who are more likely to develop infections, had a lower frequency of Tregs at birth and 36 weeks compared to HIV unexposed infants. This increased Th17/Treg ratio in iHEU was associated with impaired gut integrity at birth. These findings suggest that gut damage disrupts the Th17/Treg ratio during infant immune development, likely by attracting Treg cells to regulate inflammation occurring in the gut, so revealing an immune-gut nexus influenced by HIV exposure.Competing Interest StatementThe authors have declared no competing interest.