placental transfer of respiratory syncytial virus-specific igg in iranian mothers

background: respiratory syncytical virus infection is the most common cause of bronchiolitis and viral pneumonia in infancy. objective: to investigate the placental transfer of rsv-specific igg in iranian mothers. methods: the antibodies were measured in sera of 146 mother/newborn pairs using a commercially available indirect enzyme linked immunosorbent assay (elisa). the studied subjects were among healthy pregnant women who attended to the zeinabieh hospital of shiraz university of medical sciences in a one year period. results: a highly significant correlation was observed between rsv-specific igg in newborns and mothers (r = 0.88). however, mean rsv-specific igg antibodies in neonates was significantly higher than that of their mothers (p = 0.019). in addition, the mean cord/maternal ratio of rsv-specific igg was detected to be 1.27 ± 0.60. maternal blood group, age, parity, previous abortions and neonatal gestational age had no correlation with placental transfer of rsv-specific igg antibodies. conclusion: our finding demonstrates that placental transfer of rsv-specific igg antibodies is an active process and the main factor that influences this transfer is maternal concentration of these immunoglobulins.