Humoral and cellular immune response to varicella-zoster virus in children inoculated with live attenuated varicella vaccine

Abstract

Twenty-seven hospitalized children without a history of varicella were vaccinated with 500 plaque forming units of live attenuated varicella vaccine (Oka strain) and followed for four to five weeks at weekly intervals for the development of virus-specific cell-mediated immunity (CMI) and neutralizing (NT) antibody activity. These children had suffered from heterogeneous underlying diseases, such as acute leukemia, lymphoma, the nephrotic syndrome, and other chronic illnesses and were in various immunological states. Development of specific CMI, detected by lymphocyte transformation (LTF), was observed in 23 of the 27 children. The appearance of LTF activity in immunologically handicapped patients was delayed and/or rather suppressed compared with that of immunologically normal patients. An antibody response was detected in 26 of the 27 children. All of the vaccinated patients were protected effectively against a subsequent outbreak of varicella in the ward.