In particular, some genes related to the HPC quiescent state (DTX3L and CXCR4) [30], colony forming capacity (CD34, CD38, FLT3 and TGFBR1-3) [31], self-renewal and expansion capacity (Notch1-2, Jagged1-2 and Hes-1) [32,33], as well as several important cell death genes were significantly altered by chronic HIV-1 infection, while pDCs depletion in HIV-1-infected humanized mice largely restored the abnormal expression of these genes to a similar pattern as seen in mock-infected mice (Fig 6E and 6F, S1 Table). Here, CXCR4 is linked to HIV-1 infection.