Antibody response to capsular polysaccharide vaccine of Streptococcus pneumoniae in patients with nephrotic syndrome.

Twenty-three normal subjects and 19 patients with nephrotic syndrome were vaccinated with tridecavalent pneumococcal capsular polysaccharide vaccine of Streptococcus pneumoniae. The antibody response of the nephrotic patients to pneumococcal capsular antigens was equal to that of the control subjects. These findings indicate that patients with nephrotic syndrome, despite hypogammaglobulinemia, can mount an adequate antibody response to pneumococcal polysaccharides and that there is no evidence of suppressor thymus-derived (T) cells of dysfunctioning bone marrow-derived (B) cells in these patients.