Immunoglobulin levels in infants with low birth weights.

Abstract

SummaryThe different immunoglobulins G, M, A and D were studied in 65 infants with birth weights less than 2500 g, during their first weeks of life. The initial IgG concentration was very well correlated to gestational age, but by no means so well correlated to birth weight. Infants of low gestational age had, on the average, low IgG concentrations at birth and in the course of their first months of life there was a tendency towards more or less pronounced hypogammaglobulinaemia. Infants with low birth weights had, as a rule, a good capacity for early IgM synthesis but the increase in IgM levels during the first few weeks of life was, however, considerably less rapid in infants of very low gestational age. This may be due to the fact that such infants are less exposed to infections, owing to incubator care and various kinds of precautions. It may also, however, be an expression of an inferior capacity for IgM synthesis in these infants. As regards immunoglobulins A and D in infants with low birth weights, no pronounced differences were found on comparison with previous findings in full‐term infants.