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Infection and Immunity, May 1999, p. 2441-2451, Vol. 67, No. 5
0019-9567/99/$04.00+0
Copyright © 1999, American Society for Microbiology. All rights reserved.

Humoral Immune Responses to Neisseria meningitidis in Children

Andrew J. Pollard,1,* Rachel Galassini,1 Eileene M. Rouppe van der Voort,2 Robert Booy,1 Paul Langford,1 Simon Nadel,1 Catherine Ison,1 J. Simon Kroll,1 Jan Poolman,2,dagger and Michael Levin1

Departments of Paediatrics and Infectious Diseases & Microbiology, Imperial College School of Medicine, St. Mary's Hospital, London W2 1PG, United Kingdom,1 and Laboratory of Vaccine Development and Immune Mechanisms, National Institute of Public Health and the Environment, Bilthoven, The Netherlands2

Received 22 September 1998/Returned for modification 2 December 1998/Accepted 5 February 1999

An understanding of the nature of immunity to serogroup B meningococci in childhood is necessary in order to establish the reasons for poor responses to candidate vaccines in infancy. We sought to examine the nature of humoral immune responses following infection in relation to age. Serum bactericidal activity was poor in children under 12 months of age despite recent infection with Neisseria meningitidis. The highest levels of bactericidal activity were seen in children over 10 years of age. However, infants produced levels of total immunoglobulin G (IgG) and IgG subclass antibodies similar to those in older children in a meningococcal enzyme-linked immunosorbent assay. Most antibody was of the IgG1 and IgG3 subclasses. This striking age dependency of bactericidal antibody response following infection is not apparently due to failure of class switching in infants but might be due to qualitative differences in antibody specificity or affinity.

* Corresponding author. Mailing address: Paediatric Infectious Diseases Unit, Imperial College School of Medicine, St. Mary's Hospital, Norfolk Place, London W2 1PG, United Kingdom. Phone: 44 171 886 6377. Fax: 44 171 886 6284. E-mail: AJPollard{at}csi.com.

dagger Present address: SmithKline Beecham Biologicals, Rixensart, Belgium.

Infection and Immunity, May 1999, p. 2441-2451, Vol. 67, No. 5
0019-9567/99/$04.00+0
Copyright © 1999, American Society for Microbiology. All rights reserved.


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