Maternal deprivation, acute respiratory infections and immune regulation.

ABSTRACT

OBJECTIVE: The study was designed to investigate the acute respiratory disease incidence (DI) in deprived infants and test the hypothesis if maternal deprivation effects the processes of immunoregulation in infants. METHODS: The prospective study during 1 year in Tbilisi Infant's House was performed. Cohort of 136 infants at age from 1 to 24 months without any congenital abnormalities formed the basic group. The cohort of 136 healthy infants at age 1 to 24 months of the same population living under the maternal care in three shelters of Tbilisi region was randomized as a control. The study included DI, age of first attack, duration of illness, outcome, plasma immune parameters. RESULTS: The data have demonstrated that maternal deprivation induces a marked increase in the severity of acute respiratory disease among infants. DI was twice as much in deprived children as in control group. Moreover, there was diagnosed the disruption of normal correlations between plasma CD3, CD4 and CD8 in infants under maternal deprivation. CONCLUSION: Maternal deprivation induces changes in processes of immunoregulation in infants resulted in elevation of acute respiratory DI among them.