Serum and Secretory IgA in Axenic and Holoxenic Mice

Abstract

Abstract The study of the IgA content of serum, spleen, cecum and salivary glands of axenic and gnotoxenic mice leads us to these conclusions: only the intestinal IgA system works in axenic mice to secrete an immunoglobulin which is immunologically comparable to the 11S IgA described in man; this system is independent of the serum IgA system which does not function until several weeks after the establishment of a normal intestinal flora. Perhaps only after flora has triggered intense proliferation and kinetic activation of the intestinal lympho-epithelial system can the gut epithelium perform its “instructive function” and influence the maturation of the serum and the other exocrine IgA systems.