Associating changes in the immune system with clinical diseases for interpretation in risk assessment.
Authors
Luster MI; Germolec DR; Parks CG; Blanciforti L; Kashon M; Luebke R
Source
Current protocols in toxicology. Costa LG, Hodgson E, Reed DJ, Maines MD, Sassa S, Sipes IG, Bradfield C, Lawrence DA, Morgan KS, eds. New York: Wiley and Sons, Inc., 2004 Jan; 2(Suppl 20):18.1.1-18.1.20
While it is well established that immunosuppression (see Terminology) can lead to an increased incidence and/or severity of infectious and neoplastic diseases, interpreting immunosuppression data from experimental immunotoxicology studies, or even epidemiological studies, for use in quantitative risk assessment is problematic. This is mostly due to a paucity of information on the health consequence of minimal-to-moderate immunosuppression, as might be expected to occur from inadvertent exposure to immunotoxic agents in humans. It is important that a scientifically sound framework be established that allows for the accurate quantitative interpretation of such data for use in the risk assessment process. In immunotoxicology, this may require, for example, development of a model to equate moderate changes in leukocyte counts. CD4 cell numbers, and/or immunoglobulin levels, tests which can be readily performed in human populations, to potential changes in the incidence or severity of infectious diseases, as well as establishing the social and economic impact of the incidence change. Although experimental animal models usually provide an opportunity to establish more reliable exposure estimates and conduct more informative immune tests than those that can be conducted in humans, extrapolating these findings across species is always of concern. The development of a framework to perform such extrapolations is currently being addressed by the authors' workgroup. As an integral process to this undertaking, a review of studies that address the qualitative and quantitative relationships between immune parameters and disease is contained herein. Initially, the most likely clinical consequences that may occur as a result of chronic mild-to-moderate immunosuppression are described as well as nonimmune factors that may modify these disease outcomes. Clinical and experimental animal studies that have examined immunosuppression disease relationships are reviewed and quantitative relationships when available are delineated to help address gaps in human health risk assessment. To address the potential social and economic consequences that could result from immunotoxicity, a brief description of the general impact of infectious disease is provided on these parameters. The most comprehensive data bases that address immunodeficiency disease relationships, specifically primary (genetic) immunodeficiency and AIDS, are not discussed, as these represent extreme examples of immunosuppression and neither the specific clinical diseases that result nor the eventual outcomes have much in common to that which occurs in individuals with chronic mild-to-moderate immunosuppression.
Links with this icon indicate that you are leaving the CDC website.
The Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) cannot attest to the accuracy of a non-federal website.
Linking to a non-federal website does not constitute an endorsement by CDC or any of its employees of the sponsors or the information and products presented on the website.
You will be subject to the destination website's privacy policy when you follow the link.
CDC is not responsible for Section 508 compliance (accessibility) on other federal or private website.
For more information on CDC's web notification policies, see Website Disclaimers.
CDC.gov Privacy Settings
We take your privacy seriously. You can review and change the way we collect information below.
These cookies allow us to count visits and traffic sources so we can measure and improve the performance of our site. They help us to know which pages are the most and least popular and see how visitors move around the site. All information these cookies collect is aggregated and therefore anonymous. If you do not allow these cookies we will not know when you have visited our site, and will not be able to monitor its performance.
Cookies used to make website functionality more relevant to you. These cookies perform functions like remembering presentation options or choices and, in some cases, delivery of web content that based on self-identified area of interests.
Cookies used to track the effectiveness of CDC public health campaigns through clickthrough data.
Cookies used to enable you to share pages and content that you find interesting on CDC.gov through third party social networking and other websites. These cookies may also be used for advertising purposes by these third parties.
Thank you for taking the time to confirm your preferences. If you need to go back and make any changes, you can always do so by going to our Privacy Policy page.