Eman Kandil.
Department
of Biochemistry, Faculty of Science; Ain Shams University, Cairo, Egypt.
An evaluation of serum IgG, IgA, IgE and IgG
subclasses with regard to antiepileptic drugs, carbamazepine (CBZ), valproic
acid (VPA), and phenobarbital (PB) was performed in 20 epileptic patients. None
of them had received antiepileptic drugs prior to the study. Serum IgG
subclasses levels were measured before and after one and four months after treatment
using IgG subclass ELISA. Reduce serum concentrations of IgG2 was
demonstrated after treatment regardless the type of antiepileptic drug. This
decrease was detected at one month after drug therapy and was maintained after
four months of treatment. These differences were statistically significant as
compared to healthy controls for PB(P < 0.01) after one and 4 months of treatment and for CBZ (P <
0.001) after 4 months of treatment. Patients treated with VPA showed an
increase in IgG1 level, whereas a fall in IgG3 level was
found in the VPA and CBZ groups. Serum IgM concentration was significantly
decreased in groups of patients treated with CBZ of PB after one and four
months of drug treatment (P < 0.02 and P < 0.03, respectively), while IgE
concentration was significantly reduced after 4 months of treatment in the same
groups (P < 0.05). These data suggest that antiepileptic drugs have
influence not only in serum IgM and IgE but also in serum IgG subclasses in
children.