PEDIATRICS Vol. 104 No. 1 July 1999, p. e12

ELECTRONIC ARTICLE:
Previous Exposure to Measles, Mumps, and Rubellabut Not Vaccination During AdolescenceCorrelates to the Prevalence of Pancreatic and Thyroid Autoantibodies

Received Nov 12, 1998; accepted Feb 2, 1999.

Bengt Lindberg^*, Karin Ahlfors, Annelie Carlsson, Ulla-Britt Ericsson^§, Mona Landin-Olsson^#, Åke Lernmark, Johnny Ludvigsson^**, Göran Sundkvist^¶, and Sten-Anders Ivarsson^*

From the Departments of ^* Pediatrics,  Clinical Microbiology, ^§ Clinical Research, and ^¶ Endocrinology, Malmö University Hospital, Malmö, Sweden; Departments of  Pediatrics and ^# Medicine, University Hospital, Lund University, Lund, Sweden; the Department of ^** Pediatrics, University of Linköping; and the Department of  Medicine, University of Washington, Seattle, Washington.

Objective.  This study was designed to determine whether a relationship exists between previous exposure to measles, mumps, and rubella (MMR) by natural infection or vaccination or by new immunization with MMR vaccine, and either the presence or levels of autoantibodies against thyroid cell and pancreatic -cell antigens.

Methods.  Antibodies against MMR and autoantibodies against thyroglobulin, thyroid peroxidase, pancreas islet cells (ICA), islet cell surface, glutamic acid decarboxylase 65k autoantibodies, and insulin were studied before, and 3 months after, vaccination with combined MMR vaccine in 386 school children between 11 and 13 years of age.

Results.  The vaccination changed neither the prevalence nor the level of autoantibodies. Children with rubella antibodies before vaccination had higher levels of ICA than did the rubella seronegative children. In contrast, thyroid autoantibody levels and prevalence were lower in children with antibodies against measles, mumps, or both before vaccination than in children without those antibodies.

Conclusions.  Previous natural infection or vaccination against measles, mumps, or both seemed to have an inhibitory effect on the development of thyroid autoantibodies. In contrast, children with previous exposure to rubella had higher levels of ICA. No evidence was found that MMR vaccination during adolescence may trigger autoimmunity.  Key words:  autoantibodies, thyroiditis, type 1 diabetes mellitus, vaccination, virus.

CiteULike    Connotea    Del.icio.us    Digg    Facebook    Reddit    Technorati    Twitter    What's this?

This article has been cited by other articles:

				T. H. Lipman, Y. Chang, and K. M. Murphy The Epidemiology of Type 1 Diabetes in Children in Philadelphia 1990-1994: Evidence of an epidemic Diabetes Care, November 1, 2002; 25(11): 1969 - 1975. [Abstract] [Full Text] [PDF]