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Early development in healthy children of serum opsonins against nonpathogenic Neisseria meningitidis
Author(s) -
FREDLUND HANS,
SELLDÉN HANS,
DANIELSSON DAN,
OLCÉN PER
Publication year - 1992
Publication title -
apmis
Language(s) - English
Resource type - Journals
SCImago Journal Rank - 0.909
H-Index - 88
eISSN - 1600-0463
pISSN - 0903-4641
DOI - 10.1111/j.1699-0463.1992.tb00896.x
Subject(s) - neisseria meningitidis , opsonin , microbiology and biotechnology , meningococcal disease , immunology , neisseria , neisseriaceae , medicine , biology , virology , chemistry , bacteria , phagocytosis , antibiotics , genetics
In an earlier study, with the use of chemiluminescence (CL) and phagocytic killing, we could show that in the presence of serum from healthy adults polymorphonuclear leukocytes (PMNL) efficiently handle nonpathogenic Neisseria meningitidis strains, in sharp contrast to those associated with clinical disease. The major part of this difference was dependent on serum factors. In the present study 84 serum samples from children 1–3, 4–6, 7–9, and 10–14 years old were studied by the CL technique according to their ability to opsonize meningococci. There was a highly significant difference (p < 0.001) in all four age groups when the CL indexes obtained with the pathogenic meningococci of the serogroups A, B and C were compared with those of the nonpathogenic menigococci: serogroup 29E and nongroupable meningococci. These findings imply that the ability to opsonize so‐called nonpathogenic meningococci is developed early in life and may explain why they are only occasionally able to cause disease.