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Comparative Role of Immunoglobulin A in Protective Immunity against the Bordetellae

Daniel N. Wolfe,^1, Girish S. Kirimanjeswara,^1,, Elizabeth M. Goebel,² and Eric T. Harvill^1*

Department of Veterinary and Biomedical Sciences,¹ The Huck Institutes of the Life Sciences, The Pennsylvania State University, 115 Henning Building, University Park, Pennsylvania 16802²

Received 20 March 2007/ Returned for modification 19 April 2007/ Accepted 13 June 2007

The genus Bordetella includes a group of closely related mammalian pathogens that cause a variety of respiratory diseases in a long list of animals (B. bronchiseptica) and whooping cough in humans (B. pertussis and B. parapertussis). While past research has examined how these pathogens are eliminated from the lower respiratory tract, the host factors that control and/or clear the bordetellae from the upper respiratory tract remain unclear. We hypothesized that immunoglobulin A (IgA), the predominant mucosal antibody isotype, would have a protective role against these mucosal pathogens. IgA^–/– mice were indistinguishable from wild-type mice in their control and clearance of B. pertussis or B. parapertussis, suggesting that IgA is not crucial to immunity to these organisms. However, naïve and convalescent IgA^–/– mice were defective in reducing the numbers of B. bronchiseptica in the upper respiratory tract compared to wild-type controls. Passively transferred serum from convalescent IgA^–/– mice was not as effective as serum from convalescent wild-type mice in clearing this pathogen from the tracheae of naive recipient mice. IgA induced by B. bronchiseptica infection predominantly recognized lipopolysaccharide-containing O-antigen, and antibodies against O-antigen were important to bacterial clearance from the trachea. Since an IgA response contributes to the control of B. bronchiseptica infection of the upper respiratory tract, immunization strategies aimed at inducing B. bronchiseptica-specific IgA may be beneficial to preventing the spread of this bacterium among domestic animal populations.

Published ahead of print on 25 June 2007.

Editor: D. L. Burns

D.N.W. and G.S.K. contributed equally to this work.

Present address: Albany Medical Center, 43 New Scotland Avenue, Albany, NY 12208.

This article has been cited by other articles:

• Goebel, E. M., Wolfe, D. N., Elder, K., Stibitz, S., Harvill, E. T. (2008). O Antigen Protects Bordetella parapertussis from Complement. Infect. Immun. 76: 1774-1780 [Abstract] [Full Text]