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Immunoglobulin G Subclass Profile of Antimeasles Response in Vaccinated Children and in Adults with Measles History

G. N. Gabrichevsky Institute of Epidemiology and Microbiology, Moscow, Russia,¹ Research Centre for Medical Genetics, Moscow, Russia²

Received 20 January 2005/ Returned for modification 22 February 2005/ Accepted 21 April 2005

The aim of this study was to investigate measles-specific immunoglobulin G (IgG) subclass profile in vaccinated children and in adults with natural infection. Serum samples were collected before and 30 days after vaccination. The sera from 51 late convalescent adults and seven adults with natural measles infection at the 12th day after onset of rash have been also investigated. Measles IgG antibodies and specific IgG subclasses were tested by enzyme-linked immunosorbent techniques. In children younger than 3 years, the predominant subclass was IgG3, which contributed, on average, 63.3% of the total IgG response. The contributions of specific IgG1 and IgG4 to the total IgG antimeasles response were lower (19.9% and 16.8%, respectively), whereas IgG2 was not found. In contrast, in the group of children older than 4 years, just IgG2 was a predominant subclass; it contributed 42.6% of the total IgG response. Other subclasses were also present but the contribution was much lower. In adult volunteers with measles history, IgG2 was a predominant subclass of total IgG. Thus, in early convalescence IgG2 contributed 62% of the total IgG response, whereas in late convalescence the contribution was lower (41.4%). There were no visible differences in IgG subclass composition between subjects with natural infection and vaccinated children except those below 3 years of age. The humoral immune response of such subjects is immature and the IgG2 subclass of virus-specific antibodies has not been revealed in the sera.