Serum and Secretory IgA in Axenic and Holoxenic Mice

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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.

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