Selective and non-selective admission of various antitoxins into foetal rabbits

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Abstract
Antitoxins were employed to measure the relative rates of entry of antibodies into the foetal circulation, and into the amniotic fluid, from the uterine lumen in rabbits on the 24th day of gestation. Antitoxic sera prepared in rabbits, cattle and horses against diphtheria toxin, tetanus toxin and Clostridium welchii α -toxin were used, since tests for antitoxins are both sensitive and quantitative. These sera, each immune to one antigen, were mixed and the mixture was injected into the uterine lumen. Analysis of the relative concentrations attained in the foetal sera and amniotic fluids showed that whereas rabbit antitoxins entered the foetal blood at a rate at least fifty times greater than bovine or equine antitoxins, all three antitoxins entered the amniotic fluid at almost identical rates. The concentrations attained in the substance of the membranes traversed provide evidence suggesting the operation of at least two distinct mechanisms. The entry of rabbit antibodies into the foetal circulation may depend on an active process of absorption and secretion by the cells. The entry of both homologous and heterologous antibodies into the amniotic fluid and of heterologous antibodies into the foetal blood, on the other hand, may depend on a process of ‘seepage’ between the cells.

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