According to an analysis of National Health and Nutrition Examination Survey (NHANES) results for more than 12,000 subjects, dietary fiber intake was positively associated with an improved serum concentration of antibodies in cases of mumps, a new study published in the journal Nutrients reports.
 
Researchers who were involved in the study said that the reason they investigated associations between prebiotic fibers and immune response was due to previous research which indicated that prebiotics treatment was recently shown to increase antibody concentrations following flu vaccinations, in a meta-analysis of clinical trials.
 
“Our objective was to investigate the potential effect of dietary fiber on immunogenicity,” the authors of the study wrote. “We examined serum antibody concentrations (measles, mumps, rubella, and varicella) in relation to dietary fiber in more than 12,000 subjects in the U.S. [NHANES] for the period 1999-2004.”
 
While no significant differences were found in any of the aforementioned immune responses aside from mumps, when dividing the subjects into quartiles based on dietary fiber intake concentrations, it was found that there was a 6.34% increase in antibodies for each quartile increase, signifying a dose-dependent relationship between dietary fiber intake and a more pronounced immune response to mumps, including both natural infections and vaccines.
 
“Modification of antibody response by fiber could vary according to type of vaccine or natural infection, but to our knowledge no other data address this,” the authors of the study concluded. “Antibodies were measured in this study following viral infections or vaccination with live attenuated viruses. Our results leave open the possibility that an association between fiber and other antibodies may be present, but at this point we have little indication which ones other than influenza would most likely be similarly affected.”