Maternal Immunization Confers Protection to the Offspring against an Attaching and Effacing Pathogen through Delivery of IgG in Breast Milk.

ABSTRACT: Owing to immature immune systems and impaired colonization resistance mediated by the microbiota, infants are more susceptible to enteric infections. Maternal antibodies can provide immunity, with maternal vaccination offering a protective strategy. We find that oral infection of adult females with the enteric pathogen Citrobacter rodentium protects dams and offspring against oral challenge. Parenteral immunization of dams with heat-inactivated C. rodentium reduces pathogen loads and mortality in offspring but not mothers. IgG, but not IgA or IgM, transferred through breast milk to the intestinal lumen of suckling offspring, coats the pathogen and reduces intestinal colonization. Protective IgG largely recognizes virulence factors encoded within the locus of enterocyte effacement (LEE) pat

SUBMITTER: Caballero-Flores G 

PROVIDER: S-EPMC6375740 | biostudies-literature | 2019 Feb

REPOSITORIES: biostudies-literature