Assessment of the association between measles vaccine response and asthma status

Abstract

Rationale Both T-helper 1 cell (Th1) and T-helper 2 cells (Th2) play a role in determining humoral immune response. Asthmatics have been found to have a Th2 predominant milieu. However, it is not known whether there is a difference in humoral immune response between asthmatics and non-asthmatics. Thus, we determined whether humoral immune response in asthmatics differs from that in non-asthmatics. Methods Our previous study determined the seroprevalence of measles antibody at ages 5 to 12 years in a convenience sample of 876 schoolchildren in Rochester, MN, who had been immunized with MMR vaccine at 15 months of age. Circulating measles virus-specific IgG antibody levels in the subjects' sera were determined by an IgG whole virus-specific EIA (BioWhittaker, Walkersville, MD). For a group of 558 children from the original sample, we conducted medical record reviews to determine asthma status by applying pre-determined asthma criteria with documented reliability. The antibody levels were compared between asthmatics and non-asthmatics. Results There was no difference in humoral immune response between asthmatics (1.75 ± 0.85) and non-asthmatics (1.78 ± 0.73) (p=0.61). Conclusions We found that asthmatics had similar humoral immune response to non-asthmatics. Our data suggest no significant association between Th2 predominant milieu and humoral immune responses and reassure that asthmatics have normal humoral immunity.