Anti-C-carbohydrate antibodies after pneumococcal vaccination.

Similar levels of naturally occurring anti-pneumococcal C-carbohydrate antibodies were found in 15 splenectomized children, 10 splenectomized adults and 12 healthy adult volunteers by enzymelinked immunosorbent assay. Vaccination with a 14-valent pneumococcal capsular polysaccharide vaccine (Pneumovax) that contains approximately 75 micrograms C-carbohydrate per dose only led to small anti-C-carbohydrate antibody increases; they were significant, however, for all three groups (p less than 0.05) but antibody fold increases were below 2 in 34 of the 37 individuals studied.