This study was undertaken to investigate an influence of environmental pollution on immunologic status of primary school children. One hundred seven and fifty one children at third grade were randomly selected from a primary school located at the industrialized area of metropolitan Seoul and from a primary school at the semi-rural area, respectively.
Number of peripheral blood leukocytes was lower in the children living at the industrialized area than the children at the semirual area and number of granulocytes was significantly lowered in the industrialized area children. Comparison of plasma lgG subclass levels demonstrated significant upregulation of lgG2 and lgG3 in the industrialized area children, suggesting an involvement of these lgG subclasses in alteration of immunologic status leading to occurrence of allergic diseases. To examine skewing of peripheral T cell activities, peripheral mononuclear cells were in vitro stimulated with phorbol 12-myristate 13-acetate and ionomycin, typical T cell activators, for 72 hours followed by determination IL-4, IL-13, and TNFa in the culture supernatants. Production of IL-4 and IL-13, two representative type-2 cytokine mediation allergic responses, was significantly higher at the industrialized area children than the semi-rural children with no difference at the TNFa level. This observation indicates that enhancement of type-2 response potentially mediation allergy induction was apparent in the industrialized area children. Meanwhile, comparison of plasma lgE and histamine levels between the two area did not show similar trends as the lgG subclass and T cell activities.
Overall, our data implies that functional activities of T and B cells in the children living at heavily polluted area could be modified in comparison with those of the children at rather clean environment area.
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