Bacille Calmette-Guérin vaccination at birth and differential white blood cell count in infancy. A randomised clinical trial.

Signe Kjeldgaard Jensen, Trine Mølbæk Jensen, Nina Marie Birk, Lone Graff Stensballe, Christine Stabell Benn, Kristoffer Jarlov Jensen, Ole Pryds, Dorthe Lisbeth Jeppesen, Thomas Nørrelykke Nissen

Journal: Vaccine 2021;38(11):2449-2455

PMID: 32057570

Full Text on Elsevier Science View on PubMed

Abstract

BACKGROUND

The Bacille Calmette-Guérin (BCG) vaccine against tuberculosis (TB) may have beneficial non-specific effects (NSEs) beyond the protection against TB. This may be related to modifications of the innate immune system. We investigated the effect of BCG at birth on differential white blood cell (WBC) count in healthy, Danish infants.

METHOD

The Danish Calmette Study randomised newborns to BCG at birth (Danish strain 1331, Statens Serum Institut) or no intervention. A sub-group of infants had blood samples collected 4 days after randomisation (n = 161), and at age 3 months (n = 152) and 13 months (n = 300). We evaluated the effect of BCG on WBC differential count (total leucocytes, lymphocytes, monocytes, eosinophil, neutrophil and basophil granulocytes (10 cells/L)) measured in peripheral blood.

RESULTS

Overall, we found no effect of BCG on differential WBC counts at any time point.

CONCLUSION

BCG at birth did not affect WBC count in our cohort of healthy, Danish infants.

Address: Department of Pediatrics, Copenhagen University Hospital, Hvidovre, Denmark. Electronic address: [email protected].; Department of Pediatrics, Copenhagen University Hospital, Hvidovre, Denmark.; The Department of Pediatrics and Adolescent Medicine, The Juliane Marie Center, Rigshospitalet, Copenhagen University Hospital, Denmark.; Research Center for Vitamins and Vaccines (CVIVA), Statens Serum Institut, Denmark; Odense Patient Data Explorative Network (OPEN), Odense University Hospital/Department of Clinical Research, University of Southern Denmark, DK-5000 Odense, Denmark.; Research Center for Vitamins and Vaccines (CVIVA), Statens Serum Institut, Denmark; Department of Health Technology, Technical University of Denmark, Kgs. Lyngby, Denmark.

DOI: 10.1016/j.vaccine.2020.02.006

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MeSH Terms: BCG Vaccine, Cohort Studies, Denmark, Humans, Infant, Infant, Newborn, Leukocyte Count, Tuberculosis, Vaccination