Journal Article

A mixture of three prebiotics does not affect vaccine specific antibody responses in healthy term infants in the first year of life

Knipping, Karen, Garssen, Johan, van Stuijvenberg, Margriet, Stam, Jose, Sauer, Pieter J.J.

2011

Overview

► We studied 164 infants in a RCT who were randomized to prebiotics or placebo added to formula feeding. ► We examined their immunoglobulin-G concentrations specific to Hib and tetanus immunizations. ► Prebiotics supplementation has no effect on vaccination specific antibody levels in young infants. Previous studies have shown, that prebiotics can modulate the immune response in infants at risk for allergy, leading to a lower incidence of atopic dermatitis. Few studies have evaluated the effect of prebiotic carbohydrates alone on the vaccine-specific antibody response as a marker for the development of the immune system in healthy infants not at risk for allergy. This study evaluates the effect of adding a specific prebiotic mixture of short chain galacto-oligosaccharides (scGOS)/long chain fructo-oligosaccharides (lcFOS) ratio 9:1 and pectin-derived acidic oligosaccharides (pAOS) to formula feeding on the specific immunoglobulin responses to Haemophilus influenza type b (Hib) and tetanus immunization in healthy non-atopic infants during the first year of life. This substudy has been embedded in a multinational multicenter RCT (n=1130 children) to evaluate the effect of study prebiotics on the incidence of fever episodes during the first year of life. The study prebiotics were administered throughout the first year of life. This is a substudy on the vaccine-specific immunoglobulin responses to Hib and tetanus immunizations. Only data of the Dutch children, 80 in the prebiotics group and 84 in the control group, were used for this substudy. They all followed the national vaccination schedule leading to a homogeneous group. Blood was sampled at 6 and 12months of age. Hib immunizations: median values did not differ between groups at the age of 6 and 12months. At the age of 12months, 34 out of 37 (91.9%) infants in the prebiotics group and 31 out of 34 infants (91.2%) in the control group had Hib antibody levels >1.0μg/ml. Tetanus immunizations: median values did not differ between groups at the age of 6 and 12months and were above the cut-off value of 0.1IU/ml in all infants in both the prebiotics and the control group. No effect of prebiotics supplementation on vaccination specific antibody levels was found in children up to the age of 12months; the vaccine specific antibody levels in infants fed the study prebiotics or a control diet were similar during the first year of life. We hypothesize that this specific prebiotic mixture, which resembles the composition of oligosaccharides in human milk, mainly promotes Th1 and Treg dependent immune responses and induces a down regulation of IgE-mediated allergic responses, while the desired vaccine-specific serum antibody responses remain intact.

• Publisher: Elsevier Ltd,Elsevier,Elsevier Limited
• Subject: Allergies / Allergy and Immunology / Antibodies, Bacterial - blood / Antibody Formation - drug effects / Applied microbiology / atopic dermatitis / Babies / Bacterial Capsules - administration & dosage / Bacterial Capsules - immunology / Biological and medical sciences / blood serum / bottle feeding / breast milk / Breastfeeding & lactation / children / fever / fructooligosaccharides / Fundamental and applied biological sciences. Psychology / galactooligosaccharides / Haemophilus / Haemophilus Vaccines - administration & dosage / Haemophilus Vaccines - immunology / Healthy infants / Humans / immune response / Immune system / immunoglobulins / Infant / Infants / influenza / Microbiology / Non-atopic / Nondigestible carbohydrates / Prebiotic supplementation / Prebiotics / risk / tetanus / Tetanus Toxoid - administration & dosage / Tetanus Toxoid - immunology / vaccination / Vaccination antibody response / Vaccines / Vaccines, antisera, therapeutical immunoglobulins and monoclonal antibodies (general aspects)