Neonatal Fc Receptor-Mediated IgG Transport Across Porcine Intestinal Epithelial Cells: Potentially Provide the Mucosal Protection.

Abstract

It has been well characterized that piglets can absorb colostrum IgG across the intestine to neonatal bloodstream and a certain level of IgG has been found in the mucosal secretions of the porcine intestinal tract. However, little is known about how the maternal IgG transport across the intestinal barrier and how IgG enter the lumen of intestinal tract. In this study, we demonstrated that the porcine neonatal Fc receptor (pFcRn) was expressed in a model of normal porcine intestinal epithelial cells (IPEC-J2) as well as in kidney cells (PK-15), and pFcRn was mainly distributed in the apical side of the polarized IPEC-J2 cells. Analyzing the phylogenetic relatedness of this gene we found that swine and human neonatal Fc receptor (FcRn) amino acid sequence are closer than rodents. We also showed that pFcRn mediated bidirectional IgG transport across polarized IPEC-J2 cells and bound to IgG in a pH-dependent manner. Furthermore, pFcRn-transcytosed viral-specific IgG reduced the transmissible gastroenteritis virus (TGEV) yield from the luminal direction by a 50% tissue culture infective dose (TCID50) assay. Our results indicate that pFcRn-dependent bidirectional IgG transport across the intestinal epithelium plays critical role in the acquisition of humoral immunity in early life and in host defense at mucosal surfaces.