Background: Reasons for the highly variable and often poor protection conferred by the Mycobacterium bovis bacille Calmette–Guérin (BCG) vaccine are multifaceted and poorly understood.
Objectives: We aimed to determine whether early-life exposure to PCBs (polychlorinated biphenyls) and DDE [1,1-dichloro-2,2-bis(p-chlorophenyl)ethylene] reduces 6-month infant BCG vaccine response.
Methods: Data came from families participating in a prospective birth cohort in eastern Slovakia. At birth, maternal and cord blood were collected for chemical analyses, and infants were immunized with BCG. Blood was collected from infants for chemical analyses and to determine 6-month BCG-specific immunoglobulin (Ig) G and IgA levels. Multivariable linear regression models were fit to examine chemical–BCG associations among approximately 500 mother–infant pairs, with adjustment for confounders.
Results: The median 6-month infant concentration of the prevalent congener PCB-153 was 113 ng/g lipid [interquartile range (IQR): 37–248], and 388 ng/g lipid (IQR: 115–847) for DDE. Higher 6-month infant concentrations of PCB-153 and DDE were strongly associated with lower 6-month BCG-specific antibody levels. For instance, BCG-specific IgG levels were 37% lower for infants with PCB-153 concentrations at the 75th percentile compared to the 25th percentile (95% CI: –42, –32; p < 0.001). Results were similar in magnitude and precision for DDE. There was also evidence of PCB–DDE additivity, where exposure to both compounds reduced anti-BCG levels more than exposure to either compound alone.
Conclusions: The associations observed in this study indicate that environmental exposures may be overlooked contributors to poorer responses to BCG vaccine. The overall association between these exposures and tuberculosis incidence is unknown.
1Department of Public Health Sciences, and 2Department of Environmental Medicine, University of Rochester School of Medicine and Dentistry, Rochester, New York, USA; 3Department of Environmental and Occupational Health, Drexel University School of Public Health, Philadelphia, Pennsylvania, USA; 4Program in Epidemiology, Division of Public Health Sciences, Fred Hutchinson Cancer Research Center, Seattle, Washington, USA; 5Department of Occupational and Environmental Health, School of Public Health and Université de Montréal Public Health Research Institute (IRSPUM), Université de Montréal, Montreal, Quebec, Canada; 6Department of Environmental Medicine, and 7Department of Toxic Organic Pollutants, Slovak Medical University, Bratislava, Slovak Republic; 8Research Centre for Toxic Compounds in the Environment, Masaryk University, Brno, Czech Republic; 9Department of Analytical Chemistry, University of Vienna, Vienna, Austria; 10Division of Environmental and Occupational Health, Department of Public Health Sciences, University of California, Davis, Davis, California, USA
Recommended Citation:
Todd A. Jusko,1,2 Anneclaire J. De Roos,et al. A Birth Cohort Study of Maternal and Infant Serum PCB-153 and DDE Concentrations and Responses to Infant Tuberculosis Vaccination[J]. Environmental Health Perspectives,2016-01-01,Volume 124(Issue 6):813