Recently, a dextran sulfate sodium (DSS)-induced nonhuman primate (NHP) colitis model in SIV-infected rhesus macaques a natural host species for SIV that does not manifest GI tract damage or chronic immune activation during infection, was used to demonstrate that DSS-exposure results in colitis with elevated levels of plasma SIV RNA, sCD14, LPS, CRP and mucosal CD4 T cell loss9, 11. This evidence concerns the gene CD4 and colitis.