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Colostrum of Healthy Mothers Contains Broad Spectrum of Secretory IgA Autoantibodies

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Abstract

Purpose

Human colostrum and milk provide a newborn with immunomodulatory components, ensuring protection and proper development of the immune system. Secretory IgA antibodies in colostrum represent the first line of defence against harmful substances, but their potential spectra of reactivity with autoantigens remains unclear. Here, we characterised the repertoire of natural sectretory IgA autoantibodies in colostrum of healthy mothers.

Methods

The human colostrum samples from 39 healthy mothers were analyzed for autoantibodies by indirect immunofluorescence, dot blots, immunoblots and ELISA.

Results

We found that there is high diversity in reactivities of colostral IgA antibodies to autoantigens among individual samples. Using tissue sections and biochips commonly used for autoimmunity testing, we found that most samples reacted with monkey ovary (79.3 %), monkey pancreatic tissue (78.6 %), human HEp-2 cells (69 %) and monkey adrenal gland (69.0 %), fewer samples reacted with monkey liver tissue (47.2 %), rat stomach (42.9 %), monkey testicular tissue (41.4 %), monkey salivary gland (39.3 %), rat kidney (32.1 %) and monkey cerebellar tissue (17.9 %). At the protein level, we detected reactivity of IgA with 21 out of 25 (auto) antigens. The majority of the samples reacted with the pyruvate dehydrogenase complex, E3 ubiquitin ligase, cytosolic liver antigen, promyelocytic leukemia protein and nuclear pore glycoprotein-210. Using ELISA, we found reactivity of colostral IgA antibodies against examined extractable nuclear antigens, double stranded DNA, phospholipids and neutrophil cytoplasm.

Conclusions

The broad spectrum of polyreactive natural autoantibodies present in human colostrum may contribute to proper development of mucosal immune system of the breastfed infant.

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Abbreviations

SIgA:

secretory IgA

cIgA:

colostral IgA

PBS:

phosphate-buffered saline

NaSCN:

sodium thiocyanate

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Acknowledgments

This work was supported by grants: IAA500200910 (Grant Agency of the Academy of Sciences of the Czech Republic), P304/11/1252 (Czech Science Foundation), and RVO: 61388971 (Institutional Research Concept).

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Authors and Affiliations

  1. Institute of Microbiology, Academy of Sciences of the Czech Republic, Vídeňská 1083, 142 20, Prague 4-Krč, Czech Republic

    Jaroslava Pribylova, Klara Krausova, Pavel Rossmann, Klara Klimesova, Miloslav Kverka & Helena Tlaskalova-Hogenova

  2. Paediatric Department, Institute for the Care of Mother and Child, Prague, Czech Republic

    Ingrid Kocourkova

Authors
  1. Jaroslava Pribylova
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  2. Klara Krausova
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  3. Ingrid Kocourkova
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Correspondence to Miloslav Kverka.

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Pribylova, J., Krausova, K., Kocourkova, I. et al. Colostrum of Healthy Mothers Contains Broad Spectrum of Secretory IgA Autoantibodies. J Clin Immunol 32, 1372–1380 (2012). https://doi.org/10.1007/s10875-012-9733-9

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  • DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/s10875-012-9733-9

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