Undernutrition and Altered T-cell Homeostasis in Children with Severe Chest Diseases

Abstract

Respiratory infections together with diarrhoeal diseases underlie many deaths of millions of children of the third world. This paper describes the influence of severe chest diseases, such as, bronchopneumonia, bronchiectasis, and empyema on the nutrition and cell-mediated immunity of affected children. There was almost invariably significant decrease of the levels of serum elements, e.g. zinc and iron, and serum micronutrient, e.g. vitamin A, as well as their binding proteins in the patients with empyema and in those who bad associated undernutrition. The number of T3, T4 and T8 cells were also reduced in patients who bad concomitant undernutrition. Furthermore, T4 and T8 cell homeostasis was perturbed in severely ill patients. Most significantly, T3, T4, and T8 cell markers had positive correlation with serum vitamin A and iron concentrations thereby indicating an interaction between nutrition and immunity.