SYSTEMIC AND LOCAL IMMUNE-RESPONSES AFTER PARENTERAL INFLUENZA VACCINATION IN JUVENILE DIABETIC-PATIENTS AND HEALTHY CONTROLS - RESULTS FROM A PILOT-STUDY

Diabetes patients suffer frequent complications and some excess mortal ity after influenza virus infection, Despite widespread agreement that diabetic patients should be routinely vaccinated against influenza, s ome reports claim that diabetics have a pool immune response to influe nza vaccine. We have performed a pilot study to examine the humoral im mune response of juvenile diabetics and matched healthy controls vacci nated with inactivated trivalent influenza vaccine, By enzyme-linked i mmunospot assay we found that both groups had comparable magnitude and kinetics of influenza specific antibody secreting cell response, The influenza-specific antibody, response in both serum and oral fluid wer e similar for-both groups, and also showing a kinetic profile in accor dance with our earlier data for healthy adults, Our study did not dete ct a difference in the humoral immune response between juvenile diabet ics and healthy controls. (C) 1997 Elsevier Science Ltd, All rights re served.