CD4 and infection: Therefore, we concluded that (i) the outcome of SIVagm infection of RMs is not due to its inability to infect mucosal CD4+ T cells; (ii) GALT CD4+ T cell depletion during acute infection of SIVagm-infected RMs was of the same order of magnitude as the CD4+ T cell depletion that usually occurs in pathogenic SIVsmm infections of RMs, thus not being predictive for clinical outcome of SIV infection; (iii) the complete control of SIVagm infection in RMs resulted in a slow but complete restoration of CD4+ T cells.