THE STUDY OF CELL-MEDIATED IMMUNITY IN INFANTSWITH RESPIRATORY SYNCYTIAL VIRUS (RSV) LOWER RESPIRATORY INFECTION

Zhang J-H¹, Bi W-S²

1 Harbin Children’s Hospital, Harbin, China

2 The First Hospital of Harbin Medical University, Harbin, China

Objective: We examined the cellular immune response in infants with RSV bronchiolitis or pneumonia, in order to discusse the pathogenesis of RSV lower respiratory tract infection in infancy.

Methods: ELISA was used to measure the level of IFN-γ in peripheral blood mononuclear cells (PBMC), and monoclone antibody immunofluorescentmetry to measure the distribution of lymphocyte subsets in infants with bronchiolitis or pneumonia.

Results: It was observed that IFN-γlevel and T lymphocyte counts in infants with severe disease were significantly lower than those of infants with mild condition in the acute phase of illness (p<0.05).

Conclusions: The data indicate that reduced levels of IFN-γ and T lymphocyte counts may be important factors in the pathogenesis of severe RSV lower respiratory infection in infants.

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