Журнал инфектологии (Sep 2014)
Development of immunity against viral and bacterial antigens after repeated exposures to suberythemal doses of ultraviolet light
Abstract
The effects of ultraviolet (UV) radiation on human infectious immunity are not well studied. On the one hand, solar and artificial UU sources have been shown to change cytokine levels in human skin, lymphocyte subpopulation counts in parepheral blood, lymphocyte DNA synthesis and prolifarative response to mitogens. On the other hand, there are just only one or two observations suggesting an influence of UV radiation on human infection course. For instance, UV irradiations have been reported to induce a reccurence of orofacial vesicular lesions caused by herpes siplex virus. Moreover, there is a lack of data concerning immune effects of suberythtemal doses of UV in spite of a long history of using them by Russian prophylactic medicine. In this work we questioned whether such suberythemal UV exposures can affect the immune responses of children to infectious conjunctivitis, to simultaneous measles and polio vaccinations and to simultaneous polio and diphtheria-tetanus vaccinations. In peripheral blood of vaccinated children we examined leukocyte counts (monocytes, neutrophils, eosinophils, lymphocytes), percentages of lymphocyte subpopulations (CD3+, CD20+, CD4+, CD8+, CD25+, HLADR+), concentrations of cytokines (IL-1 beta, TNF-alpha, IFN- amma и IL-10), DNA-synthetic activity of lymphocytes and titres of antibodies against measles and diphtheria toxin. We observed no local or systemic reactions to the vaccines in the UV-group while a moderate rise in body temperature occured in several children from unexposed group. In the blood of childeren from UV-group we found increases in CD25+ и HLADR+ cell percentages, IL- 1 beta and IL-10 concentrations, PWMinduced DNA synthesis in mononuclears, and no decreases in formation of antibodies against measles and diphreria. We concluded that suberythemal UV exposures of children modulated their further responses to imminisations perhaps through the activation of a T helper 2-like reactions which appear to bring no negative influence on anti-infectious defence. Vitamin D and other mediators are supposed to play a crucial role in UV-induced immunomodulation.
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