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http://www.jimmunol.org/cgi/content/abstract/170/3/1504

The Journal of Immunology, 2003, 170: 1504-1509.
Copyright © 2003 by The American Association of Immunologists
 

Bordetella pertussis Infection in 2-Month-Old Infants Promotes Type 1 T Cell Responses¹

Françoise Mascart^2,*, Virginie Verscheure^*, Anne Malfroot, Marc Hainaut, Denis Piérard, Stéphane Temerman^*, Alexandra Peltier, Anne-Sophie Debrie^¶, Jack Levy, Giuseppe Del Giudice and Camille Locht^¶

^* Laboratory of Immunology, Hôpital Erasme, Université Libre de Bruxelles, Brussels, Belgium; Department of Pediatrics and Laboratory of Microbiology, Academisch Ziekenhuis Vrije Universiteit Brussels, Brussels, Belgium; Department of Pediatrics, Saint-Pierre Hospital, Brussels, Belgium; Chiron Biocine, Sienna, Italy; and ^¶ Institut National de la Santé et de la Recherche Médicale Unité 447, Institut Pasteur, Lille, France

Neonatal immaturity of the immune system is currently believed to generally limit the induction of immune responses to vaccine Ags and to skew them toward type 2 responses. We demonstrated here that Bordetella pertussis infection in very young infants (median, 2 mo old) as well as the first administration of whole-cell pertussis vaccine induces B. pertussis Ag-specific IFN- secretion by the PBMC of these infants. IFN- was secreted by both CD4⁺ and CD8⁺ T lymphocytes, and the levels of Ag-induced IFN- secretion did not correlate with the age of the infants. Appearance of the specific Th-1 cell-mediated immunity was accompanied by a general shift of the cytokine secretion profile of these infants toward a stronger Th1 profile, as evidenced by the response to a polyclonal stimulation. We conclude that the immune system of 2-mo-old infants is developmentally mature enough to develop Th1 responses in vivo upon infection by B. pertussis or vaccination with whole-cell pertussis vaccines.

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