Immune modulation and disease patterns in population groups

Abstract

A hypothesis which explains disease prevalence among different socio-economic groups following early infantile modulation of cell-mediated immunity by infection and nutrition related stress is presented. Wealthy populations living under highly hygienic circumstances can develop their cell-mediated immunity to genetic expectation while their humoral systems remains unstimulated. Primitive populations protect the infant's immune development by breast feeding and suffer from temporary cell-mediated immune deficiencies due to intercurrent infectious disease and famine later on. Intermediary populations harbour a small percentage of people, whose cell-mediated immune system has been permanently damaged by infection in early childhood, leading to a high incidence of diseases linked to cell-mediated immune deficiency. The possible cocarcinogenesis of the cell-mediated immune deficiency following repeated gastroenteritis and persistent stimulation of B cells, leading to alpha heavy chain disease and primary intestinal lymphoma, or due to falciparum malaria in newborns and its impact on the EB virus genome in development of Burkitt's lymphoma, are discussed.