Level of serum antibodies to opportunistic microflora as a marker of the secondary immunodeficiency processes in children

: Examination of children with different noninfectious diseases resulted in obtaining the data base on the state of health of 201 children belonging to the potential risk group of the development of secondary immunodeficiency. The children were subdivided into several groups which differed by the type of immune disturbances and accompanying metabolic shifts. The level of antibodies to one of the fragments of peptidoglycan-N-acetylmuramyldipeptide was compared with the character of changes in the immune system. Different titers of serum antibodies to peptidoglycan were found to correspond to different forms of immune disturbances. The study showed that from the group with the absence of definite signs of immunodeficiency to the group with the pronounced deficiency of T lymphocytes and monocytes expressing CD14 antigen changes in the immune system increased in parallel to a rise in the concentration of alpha 2-macroglobulin, the development of hypercholesterolemia and a decreased level of antibodies to peptidoglycan. Opportunistic microflora was seemingly an important factor in the formation of definite forms of disturbances of the immune system and accompanying metabolic shifts.