Antepartum maternal vaccination can protect highly sensitive newborns before they are old enough to receive their own vaccines. Two vaccines currently recommended during pregnancy: the flu vaccine and Tdap against tetanus, diphtheria, pertussis. Although there is strong evidence that works offspring, limitations in understanding of transfer immunity compound obscure our how work. Here we focus ...

In humans, maternal antibodies inhibit successful immunization against measles, because they interfere with vaccine-induced seroconversion. We have investigated this problem using the cotton rat model (Sigmodon hispidus). As in humans, passively transferred antibodies inhibit the induction of measles virus (MV)-neutralizing antibodies and protection after immunization with MV. In contrast, a re...

The ratio of the titers of various antibodies, namely, hemagglutinins and syphilitic reagin, in the maternal blood to that of the corresponding antibody in the cord blood was found to be relatively constant, falling somewhere between 8 and 16. This figure may be considered the "index of permeability" of human placenta to antibodies, or the coefficient of distribution of antibodies between mater...

The immune system of the newborn is immature, and therefore it is difficult to induce protective immunity by vaccination in the neonatal period. Immunization of mothers during pregnancy against infections caused by encapsulated bacteria could thus be particularly attractive, as infants do not respond to polysaccharide (PS) antigens. Transmission of maternal vaccine-specific antibodies and prote...

Campylobacter jejuni is one of the leading bacterial causes of food-borne gastroenteritis. Infection with C. jejuni is frequently acquired through the consumption of undercooked poultry or foods cross-contaminated with raw poultry. Given the importance of poultry as a reservoir for Campylobacter organisms, investigators have performed studies to understand the protective role of maternal antibo...