Search

Despite wide use of the influenza vaccine, relatively little is known about its effect on the measurement of inflammatory markers. Because inflammatory markers such as C-reactive protein (CRP) are increasingly being used in conjunction with lipids for the clinical assessment of cardiovascular disease and in epidemiologic studies, we evaluated the effect of influenza vaccination on markers of inflammation and plasma lipid concentrations. We drew blood from 22 healthy individuals 1 to 6 hours before they were given an influenza vaccination and 1, 3, and 7 days after the vaccination. Plasma CRP, interleukin (IL)-6, monocyte chemotactic protein 1, tumor necrosis factor alpha, IL-2 soluble receptor alpha, and serum amyloid A were measured, and differences in mean concentrations of absolute and normalized values on days 1, 3, and 7 were compared with mean baseline values. There was a significant increase in mean IL-6 (P.01 absolute values, P.001 normalized values) on day 1 after receiving the influenza vaccine. The mean increases in normalized high sensitivity CRP values were significant on day 1 (P.01) and day 3 (P = .05), whereas the mean increase in normalized serum amyloid A was significant only on day 1 (P.05). No significant changes were seen in mean concentrations of IL-2 soluble receptor alpha, monocyte chemotactic protein-1, or tumor necrosis factor-alpha. Of the lipids, significant decreases in mean concentrations of normalized triglyceride values were seen on days 1 (P.05), 3 (P.001), and 7 (P.05) after vaccination. Our findings show that the influenza vaccination causes transient changes in select markers of inflammation and lipids. Consequently, clinical and epidemiologic interpretation of the biomarkers affected should take into account the possible effects of influenza vaccination.

An increased prevalence of hyperhomocysteinemia has been observed among patients with end-stage renal disease, and numerous studies have demonstrated that kidney function is one of the most important determinants of plasma total homocysteine (tHcy) concentration. In an effort to understand the mechanism of hyperhomocysteinemia in renal disease, we chose, as our model, living kidney donors who had undergone uninephrectomy. We studied 10 living kidney donors and measured fasting plasma tHcy, plasma creatinine, folate, vitamins B(12) and B(6), and high-sensitivity C-reactive protein (hsCRP) 24 hours before nephrectomy and 2 days, 6 weeks, and 6 months after nephrectomy compared to the values 24 hours before nephrectomy. Mean fasting tHcy and creatinine concentrations were significantly higher in donors 2 days, 6 weeks and 6 months after nephrectomy they were 24 hours before nephrectomy. Both the increases in tHcy levels 2 days after nephrectomy and subsequent decreases 6 weeks and 6 months after are paralleled by the changes in plasma creatinine values, although neither returned to its presurgery value. Decreases in tHcy are significantly correlated with decreases in creatinine values. The B vitamins were unchanged, and the hsCRP level was increased 2 days after surgery but had returned to the baseline level after 6 weeks. We conclude that tHcy and creatinine levels parallel each other after uninephrectomy and that the gradual decrease in tHcy is accounted for by hypertrophy of the remaining kidney. Our results, the first to be obtained from living kidney donors, support the hypothesis that renal metabolism of tHcy is the mechanism responsible for the correlation between renal function and plasma tHcy level.