Six men were selected from a large cohort of homosexual men participating in a study on HIV infection that was followed from seroconversion to AIDS. The patients were studied retrospectively for immunological functions of T cells, T-cell subset distribution and biological phenotype of HIV. A severe decrease in anti-CD3 monoclonal antibody (MAb)-induced T-cell proliferation at seroconversion was observed in two out of six men. After this acute phase, CD4+ T-cell numbers were in the normal range in the early asymptomatic period; the proliferative response was subnormal, whereas the capacity to generate cytotoxic T cells (CTL) was normal. From seroconversion on, CD4+CD29+ memory T-cell numbers were decreased to approximately 50% of normal values, which may contribute to loss of T-cell reactivity. In the asymptomatic phase only slow-replicating non-syncytium-inducing HIV variants were observed. The T-cell proliferative response further declined with the depletion of naive CD4+ CD45RA+ T cells and CD4+ T-cell numbers started to decline. This second decrease in T-cell function coincided with the emergence of more rapidly replicating, often (four out of six) syncytium-inducing variants. At diagnosis of AIDS, T-cell proliferation and CD4+ T-cell numbers were extremely low in five out of six patients and CTL function had declined in three out of five individuals tested. Circulating CD8+ cells had gradually shifted to an immature CD38+CD28- phenotype. Our findings support the theory that HIV-induced immune dysfunction allows for the emergence of virulent HIV variants associated with CD4+ cell loss and disease.