**5.1 Inflammation and endothelial injury**

Endothelial cell dysfunction as a result of increase in inflammatory mediators to viral proteins has been implicated in the pathogenesis of HIV related vasculitis [5]. The inflammatory mediators include interleukins 1, 6 and 8, and tumour necrosis factor-alpha. The aforementioned argument is supported by a study by Nieuwhof et al., in the setting of cerebral vasculitis, whereby, they found an increased CD25 positive receptor positive T-cells. HIV envelope surface glycoprotein 120 and a transactivator transcription protein that have been implicated in the stimulation of pro-inflammatory pathways in HIV related vasculitis.

Increased oxidative stress in HIV in animal studies has been proposed as an additional mechanism of endothelial dysfunction [17].
