title: Does age acquired immunity confer selective protection to common serotypes of Campylobacter jejuni?
abstract: BACKGROUND
  Campylobacter infection is a major cause of bacterial gastrointestinal disease. Exposure to Campylobacter is known to produce an immune response in humans that can prevent future symptomatic infections. Further, studies of the general population have shown that seroprevalence to Campylobacter increases with age.
  
  
  METHODS
  A large collection of serotyped Campylobacter isolates, obtained from human clinical faecal samples, were analysed by comparing the ratio of uncommon to common serotypes by different age groups, using chi2 tests.
  
  
  RESULTS
  We have identified that older age groups, as well as having generally lower incidence, are significantly less likely to be infected by the more common serotypes.
  
  
  CONCLUSIONS
  These results are indicative of acquired immunity, however, further studies are needed to rule out the confounding effects of the variations in exposure pathways experienced by different age groups.
authors.affiliation: School of Biological Sciences, University of Aberdeen, Aberdeen, UK. g.miller@abdn.ac.uk
authors.forename: Gordon
authors.initials: G
authors.lastname: Miller
authors.forename: Geoff M
authors.initials: GM
authors.lastname: Dunn
authors.forename: Thomas M S
authors.initials: TM
authors.lastname: Reid
authors.forename: Iain D
authors.initials: ID
authors.lastname: Ogden
authors.forename: Norval J C
authors.initials: NJ
authors.lastname: Strachan
mesh_terms: D000293:Adolescent; D000328:Adult; D000368:Aged; D000375:Aging / Q000276:immunology*; D002169:Campylobacter Infections / Q000276:immunology*; D016123:Campylobacter jejuni / Q000145:classification* / Q000276:immunology*; D002648:Child; D002675:Child, Preschool; D005243:Feces; D006801:Humans; D015994:Incidence; D007223:Infant; D007231:Infant, Newborn; D008875:Middle Aged; D012703:Serotyping