Browsing by Author "Southerland, N.J."
Now showing 1 - 1 of 1
Results Per Page
Sort Options
Item Identification of anti-plasmodium falciparum antibodies in human breast milk(Scandinavian Journal of Immunology, 1992) Leke, R.G.F.; Ndansi, R.; Southerland, N.J.; Quakyi, I.A.; Graves, P.M.; Drake, J.C.; Allegra, C.J.Malarial infections are rarely observed in neonates. It has been postulated that some immunity may be passively transferred during nursing, but anti-malarial antibodies (Abs) have not been detected in human milk. In this study milk samples collected 2-14 days after parturition from women at the Central Maternity Hospital, Yaounde were evaluated for total IgG and IgA antibody levels by radial diffusion, protein composition by SDS-PAGE, anti-malarial antibodies using an isotype-specific immunofluorescence assay, and the ability to immunoprecipitate Plasmodium falciparum antigens metabolically labelled with 35S-methionine. Results showed that anti-P. falciparum antibodies were present in breast milk, and that paired milk and serum samples from individual women contained Abs that recognized similar malarial antigens.