CSF-induced and HIV-1–mediated Distinct Regulation of Hck and C/EBPβ Represent a Heterogeneous Susceptibility of Monocyte-derived Macrophages to M-tropic HIV-1 Infection

Granulocyte/macrophage colony-stimulating factor (GM-CSF)–induced monocyte-derived macrophages (GM-MΦ) are permissive to M-tropic HIV-1 entry, but inhibit viral replication at posttranscriptional and translational levels, whereas M-CSF-induced macrophages (M-MΦ) produce a large amount of HIV-1. M-MΦ express a high level of Hck and a large isoform of C/EBPβ, and HIV-1 infection increases the expression of Hck but not of C/EBPβ. GM-MΦ express a high level of C/EBPβ and a low level of Hck, and HIV-1 infection drastically increases the expression of a short isoform of C/EBPβ but decreases that of Hck. Treatment of M-MΦ with antisense oligonucleotide for Hck (AS-Hck) not only suppresses the expression of Hck, but also stimulates the induction of the short isoform of C/EBPβ and inhibits the viral replication. Treatment of GM-MΦ with a moderate amount of AS-C/EBPβ not only inhibits the expression of the small isoform of C/EBPβ preferentially, but also stimulates the induction of Hck and stimulates the virus production at a high rate. These results suggest that CSF-induced and HIV-1–mediated distinct regulation of Hck and small isoform of C/EBPβ represent the heterogeneous susceptibility of tissue MΦ to HIV-1 infection, and the regulation of Hck and C/EBPβ are closely related and these two molecules affect one another.