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Infection and Immunity, July 2000, p. 3830-3839, Vol. 68, No. 7
Institut für Infektiologie, Zentrum
für Molekularbiologie der Entzündung,
Westfälische Wilhelms-Universität Münster, D-48129
Münster, Germany
Received 2 September 1999/Returned for modification 21 October
1999/Accepted 4 April 2000
Monitoring specific secretory immunoglobulin A (IgA) responses in
the intestines after mucosal immunization or infection is impeded by
the fact that sampling of small intestinal secretions requires invasive
methods not feasible for routine diagnostics. Since IgA plasma cells
generated after intragastric immunization are known to populate remote
mucosal sites as well, secretory IgA responses at other mucosal
surfaces may correlate to those in the intestines and could serve as
proxy measures for IgA secretion in the gut. To evaluate the
practicability of this approach, mice were immunized intragastrically
with 0.2, 2, and 20 mg of ovalbumin plus 10 µg of cholera toxin, and
the antigen-specific local secretory IgA responses in duodenal, ileal,
jejunal, rectal, and vaginal secretions, saliva, urine, and feces, as
well as serum IgG and IgA responses were analyzed by enzyme-linked
immunosorbent assay. Correlation analysis revealed significant
relationships between serum IgG and IgA, urinary IgA, salivary IgA, and
secretory IgA in duodenal, jejunal, ileal, and rectal secretions for
the 0.2-mg but not for the 20-mg ovalbumin dose. Fecal samples were
poor predictors for intestinal antiovalbumin IgA responses, and no correlations could be established for cholera toxin, neither between local anti-cholera toxin levels nor to the antiovalbumin responses. Thus, specific IgA in serum, saliva, or urine can serve as a predictor of the release of specific IgA at intestinal surfaces after
intragastric immunization, but the lack of correlations for high
ovalbumin doses and for cholera toxin indicates a strong dependency on
antigen type and dosage for these relationships.
0019-9567/00/$04.00+0
Copyright © 2000, American Society for Microbiology. All rights reserved.
Correlations between Antibody Immune Responses at Different
Mucosal Effector Sites Are Controlled by Antigen Type and
Dosage
*
Corresponding author. Mailing address: Institut
für Infektiologie
ZMBE, Westfälische
Wilhelms-Universität Münster, von-Esmarch-Strasse 56, D-48149 Münster, Germany. Phone: 49-251-835-6477. Fax:
49-251-835-6467. E-mail: frey{at}uni-muenster.de.
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