Saturday 6 January, 2pm General
NIJMEGEN – The most used vaccine in the world is the BCG vaccine against tuberculosis. It appears that this vaccine protects not only against tuberculosis, but also against many other infections.
Fathers who have received this vaccine have children who appear to have better defenses against infections. The researchers from Radboudumc in Nijmegen want to know how this is possible and how fathers can pass on their immune properties to the next generation. “With this knowledge we can better protect people from infectious diseases,” says researcher Elisabeth Dulfer.
The researchers are looking for healthy men (18-25 years old) who will not smoke or use drugs for 6 months during the study. Participants will receive 300 euros for their participation in this study. They come five times to Radboud University Medical Center to have their blood drawn and three times to collect sperm at home. The results, including those of sperm quality control, are shared with participants. The study compares the effects of a BCG vaccine in group 1 with the effects of a dummy vaccine in men in group 2.
Elisabeth Dulfer: “Some vaccines do not only protect against the infections for which they were developed, such as the coronavirus or the influenza virus. We have found that some vaccines protect against multiple types of diseases: children die less often from viruses, but also less often from other causes. We call these effects nonspecific and we see them in children who have been vaccinated against tuberculosis with the BCG vaccine. Even children who have not been vaccinated, but who have fathers who have had the BCG vaccine, appear to be better protected.”
Do you know more? Email [email protected] or go to www.radboudumc.nl/lopen-onderzoek/next.
2024-01-06 13:00:00
#Radboud #University #Medical #Center #men #research