Granulocytes are a category of white blood cells (WBCs) characterized by the presence of lobulated nuclei and secretory granules in their cytoplasm. Blood-circulating granulocytes comprise mainly neutrophils, basophils, and eosinophils. Neutrophils make up the majority (50% to 60%) of circulating WBCs; basophils constitute only 0.5% to 1% and eosinophils less than 6%. Granulocytes are differentiated from bone marrow hematopoietic stem cells; they normally circulate in the bloodstream and are recruited to peripheral tissue under certain pathological conditions (1-5). Granulocytes participate in various inflammatory reactions. Basophils and eosinophils are known to modulate allergic disorders and autoimmune diseases (6-11).Granulocytes play crucial roles in combating invading pathogens. The expression by human granulocytes of a broad range of pattern recognition receptors suggests that they play a role in various forms of host innate immunity (12-14), and evidence is mounting that granulocytes are essential to the regulation of host adaptive immunity (6,15,16). Activated granulocytes release various intracellular granule proteins or cytokines to suppress or directly kill invading microbes and parasites (17)(18)(19)(20)(21)(22)(23)(24) or to recruit other host immune cells to combat pathogens. Neutrophils are "professional" phagocytes that rapidly engulf and degrade invaders or form extracellular traps to kill extracellular pathogens (23). Eosinophils have been described as capable of modulating the functions of other immune cells (16,25).The interplays between granulocytes and HIV-1 and their contribution to HIV-1 disease progression remain elusive. The majority of peripheral blood neutrophils do not express CD4 molecules on their surface. Previous work showed that 4 of 51 (7.8%) HIV-1-infected individuals and 3 of 25 (12%) uninfected individuals had CD4 expression on their peripheral blood neutrophils