Environmental Public Health Commons^™

Chemokine Levels In The Penile Coronal Sulcus Correlate With Hiv-1 Acquisition And Are Reduced By Male Circumcision In Rakai, Uganda., Jessica L Prodger, Ronald H Gray, Brett Shannon, Kamnoosh Shahabi, Xiangrong Kong, Kate Grabowski, Godfrey Kigozi, Fred Nalugoda, David Serwadda, Maria J Wawer, Steven J Reynolds, Cindy M. Liu, Aaron A R Tobian, Rupert Kaul

Environmental and Occupational Health Faculty Publications

Individual susceptibility to HIV is heterogeneous, but the biological mechanisms explaining differences are incompletely understood. We hypothesized that penile inflammation may increase HIV susceptibility in men by recruiting permissive CD4 T cells, and that male circumcision may decrease HIV susceptibility in part by reducing genital inflammation. We used multi-array technology to measure levels of seven cytokines in coronal sulcus (penile) swabs collected longitudinally from initially uncircumcised men enrolled in a randomized trial of circumcision in Rakai, Uganda. Coronal sulcus cytokine levels were compared between men who acquired HIV and controls who remained seronegative. Cytokines were also compared within men before …