Age-related lymphocyte and neutrophil levels in children of hepatitis C-infected women.
BACKGROUND
Investigation of immunologic values in children vertically exposed to hepatitis C virus (HCV) infection could help explain the higher risk of infection in girls and indicate mechanisms of spontaneous viral clearance and possible long-term immunologic effects.


METHODS
Prospective study of children born to HCV-infected women. Lymphocyte and neutrophil measurements were age-standardized using the LMS method (this summarizes the changing age distribution of a variable). Associations between maternal and infant characteristics and lymphocyte and neutrophil z-scores were quantified using linear regression allowing for repeated measures.


RESULTS
HCV-infected children, girls, and those born to HCV/human immunodeficiency virus (HIV)-coinfected women had significantly higher lymphocyte z-scores than HCV-uninfected children, boys, and children born to HCV-only-infected women, respectively. Peak absolute lymphocytes were significantly lower for infected children with evidence of viral clearance than for persistently infected children. Girls also had significantly higher neutrophil z-scores than boys but HCV-infected children had significantly lower neutrophil z-scores than uninfected children.


CONCLUSIONS
The gender associations are in line with those observed among children born to HIV-infected women, suggesting general gender-based differences in response to infection. Age-related standards for uninfected children could be used to assess immune function in other pediatric diseases and these results suggest that gender-specific reference values should be used at least for the first 2 years of life.
Pembrey
Lucy
L
Centre for Paediatric Epidemiology and Biostatistics, Institute of Child Health and Great Ormond Hospital for Children NHS Trust, University College London, London, UK. lucy.pembrey@lshtm.ac.uk
Newell
Marie-Louise
ML
Tovo
Pier-Angelo
PA
D000367:Age Factors; D002648:Child; D002675:Child, Preschool; D005192:Family Health; D005260:Female; D015658:HIV Infections / Q000150:complications / Q000276:immunology; D006526:Hepatitis C / Q000276:immunology*; D006801:Humans; D007223:Infant; D007231:Infant, Newborn; D007958:Leukocyte Count; D008214:Lymphocytes / Q000276:immunology*; D008297:Male; D009035:Mothers; D009504:Neutrophils / Q000276:immunology*; D011247:Pregnancy; D011251:Pregnancy Complications, Infectious; D011446:Prospective Studies; D012737:Sex Factors