Data from: Body height and immune efficacy: testing body stature as a signal of biological quality

According to the good genes hypothesis and energy allocation theory, human adult body height may reflect biological quality. An important aspect of this quality is immune system functioning (ISF). The aim of this study was to evaluate the relationship between ISF and body height in healthy people. The ISF was determined by several important innate (total complement and lysozyme activity, neutrophils function) and adaptive immune parameters (lymphocytes, IgA and IgG, and response to flu vaccine). Overall, 96 males and 97 females were subjected to flu vaccination, and of these 35 males and 34 females were subjected to tetanus. Blood samples were collected before and 4 weeks after vaccination. Immunomodulatory factors: participant's age, body fat and free testosterone levels, were controlled. There was no association between body height and all analysed immune parameters for both sexes. That might suggest that in western society, a women’s preference for taller men is not related to “good genes for immune competence”. We propose the novel Immunity Priority Hypothesis that explains the lack of relationship between adult body stature and ISF. This hypothesis, however, does not contradict the signalling role of a man's body height as a morphological marker of biological quality.

基于好基因假说（good genes hypothesis）与能量分配理论（energy allocation theory），人类成年身高可反映其生物学质量。该质量的一个重要维度即为免疫系统功能（immune system functioning, ISF）。本研究旨在探究健康人群中免疫系统功能与身高之间的关联。免疫系统功能通过多项关键固有免疫与适应性免疫参数进行评估：固有免疫参数包括总补体活性、溶菌酶活性及中性粒细胞功能；适应性免疫参数则涵盖淋巴细胞计数、免疫球蛋白A（IgA）与免疫球蛋白G（IgG）水平，以及流感疫苗接种应答。总计有96名男性与97名女性参与了流感疫苗接种，其中35名男性及34名女性额外接受了破伤风疫苗接种。分别于疫苗接种前及接种后4周采集血液样本。本研究对免疫调节因素——受试者年龄、体脂及游离睾酮水平——进行了控制。无论男女，身高与所有被分析的免疫参数之间均未发现显著关联。该结果提示，在西方社会中，女性对身高较高男性的偏好，与‘免疫能力相关的好基因’并无关联。我们提出了全新的免疫优先假说（Immunity Priority Hypothesis），用以解释成年身高与免疫系统功能之间不存在关联这一现象。但该假说并未否定男性身高作为生物学质量形态学标志物的信号传递作用。