Maternal HEL immunization has no lasting effects on the immune response of offspring to immunization with hen...

The effect of prior maternal immunization on the murine offspring response to subsequent immunization with hen egg-white lysozyme was examined. Adult female A/J mice were immunized with 100 micrograms HEL-CFA intraperitoneally 10-27 weeks before conception. The offspring of these experimental female mice were then immunized with HEL-CFA at differing ages. Suppression of the anti-HEL IgG B cell response was observed when the offspring were immunized prior to 3 weeks of age when high levels of maternal antibody were still present. Older offspring, more than 8 weeks of age, were immunized with HEL-CFA to determine if exposure to maternal immunoglobulin early in ontogeny had primed or altered the offspring response to HEL. At this age, suppressive effects of transferred maternal antibody were no longer evident. Priming was not detected in the offspring as judged by the total magnitude of the anti-HEL antibody response or the kinetics of the response when experimental and age-matched control offspring were examined. Furthermore, qualitative differences in the response as evidenced by IgG vs IgM content and fine specificity of the response (primary vs secondary antibody) were not observed. No evidence was found to suggest that exposure to polyclonal maternal anti-HEL antibody had primed the offspring for a more efficient or qualitatively different response to immunization with the protein antigen HEL. After maternal antibody levels decreased, the offspring response was similar to that of controls, suggesting that the response had not been permanently altered by the prior exposure early in ontogeny to polyclonal maternal antibody.