Dissecting infant and maternal antibody repertoires exposes the early onset of infant humoral immunity.

ABSTRACT:

Objectives

The early development of humoral immunity is important for long-term protection of the newborn. Here, we set out to discern these infant-produced antibodies from the vast background of maternal antibodies, which is challenging but essential to shed light on the infant-produced repertoire.

Methods

Using IgA1 and IgG1 antibody clonal repertoire analysis by mass spectrometry, we compared matched maternal serum, maternal milk, and infant serum samples, both at birth (T1) and at 7-11 weeks after delivery (T2) in four mother-infant dyads.

Results

We observed for both IgA1 and IgG1 unique infant-produced antibody repertoires at T2. For IgA1 at T2, no substantial clonal overlap was found between infant serum and breastmilk. The serum IgG1 clonal repertoires were hi

SUBMITTER: Bondt A 

PROVIDER: S-EPMC12790936 | biostudies-literature | 2026

REPOSITORIES: biostudies-literature