KINETICS OF IMMUNOLOGICAL RESPONSES AFTER PRIMARY MMR VACCINATION

To study the kinetics of humoral as well as cellular immunity to measl es and to test for associated immunosuppression 124 12 month old child ren were studied twice, before routine MMR and either 14, 22, 30, or 3 8 days after vaccination. Plaque reduction neutralization (PRN) titres were determined at these time points and lymphocytes were evaluated t o identify changes in proportions of phenotype, their capacity to gene rate cytokines and to respond to blast transformation (BT) to measles hemagglutinin (HA), tetanus toroid, and Candida antigen. The PRN titre and BT to HA plateaued at 30 days and CD8+ and NK cells increased aft er immunization. Interleukin 2, 4, and 10 showed no significant change s. There was mild suppression of BT at 14 and 22 days postimmunization . Interferon-gamma was the principal cytokine produced after primary m easles immunization, suggesting primary measles immunization induces p redominantly, a TH1 type response. Copyright (C) 1997 Published by Els evier Science Ltd.