A previous report suggested a relationship between particular phenotypes of group specific component (Gc), and susceptibility or resistance to HIV infection, whereas other recent investigations failed to corroborate this finding.
No significant differences in GC phenotype distribution were seen between controls and any of the at risk groups or patients, neither between HIV-Ab-positive/Ag-negative and HIV-Ab-positive/Ag-positive homosexual men nor between HIV-Ab-positive/Ag-positive homosexual men and AIDS patients, suggesting that the GC system is not involved in the infective susceptibility or progression of HIV infection to AIDS-related complex and AIDS.
Genetic subtypes of group-specific component (Gc), a protein possibly influencing susceptibility to human immunodeficiency virus infection, were assessed by isoelectric focusing of plasma from 88 patients with multiple sclerosis (MS) and related to frequencies among 3394 control individuals subjected to paternity studies.
30.2% of patients with the acquired immunodeficiency syndrome (AIDS) were homozygous for Gc 1 fast (Gc 1f) compared with 0.8% of controls (p less than 0.0001); patients with other clinical manifestations of HIV infection were also more likely than controls to have Gc 1f.