Cited by 116Per- and polyfluoroalkyl substances researchImmunotoxicology and immune responsesImmunotherapy and Immune Responses

Antibody Response to Booster Vaccination with Tetanus and Diphtheria in Adults Exposed to Perfluorinated Alkylates

Open access
Kielsen, Katrine, Shamim, Zaiba, Ryder, Lars P., Nielsen, Flemming, Grandjean, Philippe, Budtz-Jørgensen, Esben, Heilmann, Carsten·2016·Journal of Immunotoxicology

Abstract

Recent studies suggest that exposure to perfluorinated alkylate substances (PFASs) may induce immunosuppression in humans and animal models. In this exploratory study, 12 healthy adult volunteers were recruited. With each subject, serum-PFAS concentrations were measured and their antibody responses prospectively followed for 30 days after a booster vaccination with diphtheria and tetanus. The results indicated that serum-PFAS concentrations were positively correlated and positively associated with age and male sex. The specific antibody concentrations in serum were increased from Day 4 to Day 10 post-booster, after which a constant concentration was reached. Serum PFAS concentrations showed significant negative associations with the rate of increase in the antibody responses. Interestingly, this effect was particularly strong for the longer-chain PFASs. All significant associations remained significant after adjustment for sex and age. Although the study involved a small number of subjects, these findings of a PFAS-associated reduction of the early humoral immune response to booster vaccination in healthy adults supported previous findings of PFAS immunosuppression in larger cohorts. Furthermore, the results suggested that cellular mechanisms right after antigen exposure should be investigated more closely to identify possible mechanisms of immunosuppression from PFAS.

The claims and statistics of this paper haven’t been checked yet.

Run the check — free, no account needed. It reads the open-access text and checks the sources it cites.

A few free checks a day · papers already verified open instantly · results are public

Integrity signals

Registry

Crossref · 10.3109/1547691x.2015.1067259

Cites

10 of 10 references verified0 citation errors · 0 not checkable

Statistics

Claims the paper makes

The claims and statistics of this paper haven’t been checked yet.

Run the check — free, no account needed. It reads the open-access text and checks the sources it cites.

A few free checks a day · papers already verified open instantly · results are public

Claims other papers make about this one

Each is checked against this paper’s own text: does it say what the citing paper says it does?

  • A number of studies have demonstrated that elevated concentrations of PFAS can lead to immunosuppression, increased severity of infections, and decreased response to vaccines.

    “A number of studies have demonstrated that elevated concentrations of PFAS can lead to immunosuppression, increased severity of infections, and decreased response to vaccines”

    From A Critical Review and Meta-Analysis of Impacts of Per- and Polyfluorinated Substances on the Brain and Behavior (2022) · cites this paper as Kielsen et al., 2016

    The Introduction reports immunosuppression in animal models, decreased vaccine responses in humans, and an increased incidence of common infections; the Results also report reduced antibody responses with higher PFAS concentrations. It does not report increased severity of infections. Its human findings are described as associations, and the Discussion calls this small study preliminary, so “demonstrated” and “can lead to” overstate the evidence. (LLM, conf=0.88)

    Experimental — accuracy not yet measured

Self-check

Percentages, sums and reported differences re-computed from the paper’s own numbers.

The self-check needs the paper’s full text.

Cites

Flagged first, then by citations

Cited by

Sorted by citations

Authors
Kielsen, K., Shamim, Z., Ryder, L. P., Nielsen, F., Grandjean, P., Budtz-Jørgensen, E., & Heilmann, C.
Affiliations
  • Institute for Inflammation Research, Department of Rheumatology,
  • Copenhagen University Hospital (DK)
  • University of Southern Denmark (DK)
  • Harvard University (US)
  • Department of Biostatistics, School of Public Health, University of Copenhagen, Copenhagen, Denmark
Corresponding author
Heilmann, Carsten
Venue
Journal of Immunotoxicology
Published
2015-07-16
Volume
13
Issue
2
Pages
270-273
ISSN
  • 1547-6901 (ISSN-L)
  • 1547-691X
OpenAlex
W1751780479
Cited by
116
References
10
Citations by year
2026: 14 · 2025: 14 · 2024: 17 · 2023: 24 · 2022: 12 · 2021: 6 · 2020: 9 · 2019: 3 · 2018: 9 · 2017: 3 · 2016: 5
FWCI
4.18
Type
journal article
Language
en
Open access
Locations
  • Journal of Immunotoxicology (publishedVersion)
  • PubMed (publishedVersion)
  • University of Southern Denmark Research Portal (University of Southern Denmark) (acceptedVersion)
  • PubMed Central (acceptedVersion)
  • Digital Access to Scholarship at Harvard (DASH) (Harvard University) (submittedVersion, cc-by)
  • Research at the University of Copenhagen (University of Copenhagen) (submittedVersion)
Funders
  • National Institutes of Health (ES012199)
  • National Institute of Environmental Health Sciences (R01ES012199, ES012199)
Topics
  • Physical Sciences › Environmental Science › Environmental Chemistry › Per- and polyfluoroalkyl substances research
  • Life Sciences › Immunology and Microbiology › Immunology › Immunotoxicology and immune responses
  • Life Sciences › Immunology and Microbiology › Immunology › Immunotherapy and Immune Responses
Keywords
immunosuppression, booster vaccination, tetanus toxoid, diphtheria toxoid, antibody response, humoral immune response, serum PFAS concentrations, healthy adults
MeSH terms
Adult, Antibodies, Bacterial, Antibody Formation, Environmental Exposure, Female, Humans, Hydrocarbons, Fluorinated, Immunization, Secondary, Male, Diphtheria-Tetanus Vaccine

About these checks

Registry, retraction, Cites and statistics results are computed, not judged, with one exception: a printed reference that no index lists is read once by a model before it counts as a citation error. Claims are extracted by a model and kept only when their quote appears verbatim in the text; each cited source is then checked, with a model’s help, for whether it says what the claim relies on. Those verdicts can be wrong — read the claim’s quote and the cited source before relying on one.

Statistics and arithmetic are recomputed, not judged.

Confidence bands are shown only for fields calibrated on our annotated test set. None is calibrated yet, so no band is shown.

What counts as a claim ›How we measure confidence ›How we check this ›

Are you an author, or do you see a problem with this page? Request a review