Immune response to oral polio vaccine in patients with IgA glomerulonephritis

Oral poliovirus vaccine was used to immunize 51 patients with IgA glomerulonephritis and 44 healthy controls. The patients showed an enhanced antibody response compared to controls. This was apparent in a higher frequency of strong increases in neutralizing antibody titres during the course of immunization as well as higher levels of virus-specific IgA-class antibodies. IgG-class antibodies showed similar activity in both groups. In patients the neutralizing antibodies correlated with the virus-specific IgA-class antibodies, suggesting that the IgA-antibodies synthesized by the patients are functionally competent antibodies.