Milk Antibody Levels Research Articles

42: Antibody production of the mammary gland in mothers after oral colonization of their infants with E. coli 083

Twenty breast-fed infants were colonized by oral administration with a non-enteropathogenic E. coli strain 083. The antibody and secretory IgA response in the mammary gland was followed from birth during the time of breast feeding. Four infants and 14 single milk samples were used as controls. At the same time the serum antibody response in 13 artificially fed, colonized infants were examined. Mothers of colonized breast-fed infants had significantly higher antibody levels in milk than controls. Secretory IgA was twice as high in milk of mothers whose infants were colonized, when compared with controls. There was no serum antibody response in breast-fed infants after colonization, but high serum antibody titers were found in artificially fed colonized ones. The E. coli strain evoked local antibody response in the mammary gland in mothers of colonized infants, but had no systemic immunizing influence because of the inhibitory effect of antibodies in the mothers milk.

Milk Antibodies in Familial Dysautonomia

Cow's milk antibodies in sera, hemagglutinins, and precipitins were studied in six children with familial dysautonomia and were found to be exceptionally high—indeed, higher than in Down's syndrome or cerebral palsy, and much higher than in normal children. It is suggested here that these high levels of milk antibodies in dysautonomia may be mainly related to recurrent episodes of milk aspiration.