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. 2014 Mar;90(3):566-73.
doi: 10.4269/ajtmh.12-0657. Epub 2014 Jan 20.

Effects of malnutrition on children's immunity to bacterial antigens in Northern Senegal

Lobna Gaayeb  1 , Jean B Sarr, Cecile Cames, Claire Pinçon, Jean-Baptiste Hanon, Mamadou O Ndiath, Modou Seck, Fabien Herbert, Andre B Sagna, Anne-Marie Schacht, Franck Remoue, Gilles Riveau, Emmanuel Hermann
Affiliations

Effects of malnutrition on children's immunity to bacterial antigens in Northern Senegal

Lobna Gaayeb et al. Am J Trop Med Hyg. 2014 Mar.

Abstract

To evaluate immunity to vaccine-preventable diseases according to nutritional status, a longitudinal study was conducted in Senegalese children ages 1-9 years old. A linear regression analysis predicted that weight for age was positively associated with immunoglobulin G (IgG) response to tetanus toxoid in children born during the rainy season or at the beginning of the dry season. A relationship between village, time of visits, and levels of antibodies to tetanus showed that environmental factors played a role in modulating humoral immunity to tetanus vaccine over time. Moreover, a whole-blood stimulation assay highlighted that the production of interferon-γ (IFN-γ) in response to tetanus toxoid was compromised in stunted children. However, the absence of cytokine modulation in response to Mycobacterium tuberculosis-purified protein derivatives and phytohemagglutinin suggests that the overall ability to produce IFN-γ was preserved in stunted children. Therefore, these results show that nutritional status can specifically alter the efficacy of long-lasting immunity to tetanus.

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Figures

Figure 1.
Figure 1.
Analysis of the proportion change in the anti-TT IgG level from T1 to T5. We analyzed the percentage of change compared with T1 of anti-TT IgG at T2, T4, and T5 visits. We considered only children present at each visit (N = 284). Some children were not monitored in one village at T3 (school children from the village of Pendao who did not come to the visit), and therefore, we have excluded this period from this analysis to avoid bias. Histograms represent mean percentage and SD at each visit. *Significant difference with T1 (P < 0.0001) using the repeated measures ANOVA test followed by Bonferroni's multiple comparison test. **Significant difference with T2 (P < 0.0001) using the repeated measures ANOVA test followed by Bonferroni's multiple comparison test.
Figure 2.
Figure 2.
Correlations between IFN-γ production and HAZ in response to PHA or bacterial antigens. IFN-γ production was measured after whole-blood cell stimulation for (A) 48 hours with PHA or 6 days with (B) PPD, (C) TT, or (D) DT. The coefficient of correlation and the P values are indicated. The Spearman's rank correlation coefficient was used to assess correlation. P < 0.05 means a significant correlation.
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