Genetic and immune profile in primary school children with various tonicity of the educational load

Introduction. By now, substantial scientific data have been accumulated regarding influence exerted by the educational environment at school on children’s health. Excessive educational loads are known to lead to significant fatigue in school children. The issue is especially acute in so called “progressive” schools with profound studies of various subjects that involve elevated stress for school children. This stress induces to immune, genetically determined negative health outcomes.

Aim is to comparatively analyze genetic and immune profiles of primary school children attending schools with different educational loads (exemplified by the Perm region).

Materials and methods. The test group included ninty three 7–11 years children who attended a school with intensified educational loads (a gymnasium). The reference group was made of 31 7–11 years children who attended a secondary school with moderate educational loads. We examined polymorphisms of genes that were candidate regarding provision of tolerance to stress, namely, detoxification, vascular regulation and circadian rhyme genes CYP1A1 (rs1048943), GSTP1 (rs1695), eNOS(rs1799983), MTHFR (rs1801133) and PER2 (rs643159). It was done by using PCR. We analyzed cytokine profile indicators by using ELISA and CD3+CD8+-lymphocytes by using flow cytometry.

Results. The children from the test group had significant deficiency of cellular immunity indicators (product of Th1-lymphocyte expression, interferon-gamma and Т-cytotoxic lymphocytes CD3+CD8+) that were responsible for antiviral immunity and hyperexpression of interleukin-4 against the reference group (p<0.05). We established significant excessive frequency of variant alleles of CYP1A1, GSTP1, eNOS, MTHFR and PER2 genes in children with intensified educational loads (the test group) against the reference group (р<0.05).

Limitations. The limitation lies in the use of the identified markers for the diagnosis of immune and genetic disorders that manifest themselves with the tension and intensity of schoolchildren’s education.

Conclusion. Elevated frequency of minor alleles responsible for detoxification, vascular tone regulation and bulbar-controlled periodicity of biorhythms and imbalanced cellular and cytokine profiles entail risks of impaired adaptation in primary school children who attend schools with intensified educational loads (exemplified by children living in the Perm region).

Compliance with ethical standards. The study was accomplished in conformity with the Declaration of Helsinki by the World Medical Association (revised in 2013) and was approved by the Ethical Committee of the Federal Scientific Center for Medical and Preventive Health Risk Management Technologies.

Patient consent. Each participant of the study (or his/her legal representative) gave informed voluntary written consent to participate in the study and publish personal medical information in an impersonal form in the journal "Gigiena i Sanitariya (Hygiene and Sanitation, Russian journal)".

Contribution:
Mazunina A.A. — the concept and design of the study, the collection and processing of material, statistical processing, writing the text;
Dolgikh O.V. — concept, study design, editing, responsibility for the integrity of all parts of the article; Kazakova O.A. – statistical processing;
Vdovina N.A. — formation of a database;
Ustinova O.Yu. — formation of the surveyed contingent.
All authors are responsible for the integrity of all parts of the manuscript and approval of the manuscript final version. 

Conflict of interest. The authors declare no conflict of interest. 

Acknowledgement. The study had no sponsorship. 

Received: September 6, 2022 / Accepted: October 3, 2022 / Published: November 30, 2022