Do maternally derived antibodies and early immune experience shape the adult immune response?

Abstract

Summary 1.Immunological imprinting by maternally derived antibodies has been proposed to have both positive and negative consequences for offspring immunity in early and adult life. However, few studies of maternal effects on immunity have followed individuals past the juvenile stages. 2. Using laboratory Japanese quail, we developed a novel method of directly manipulating yolk antibodies of neonates, and then followed individuals through a series of immune challenges until they were of reproductive age. 3. Our method of directly injecting purified antibodies into the yolk sac of newly hatched chicks successfully elevated the plasma titres of specific anti-KLH IgY in neonates. This allows us to test whether differences in neonatal anti-KLH IgY affect immunity at the juvenile and adult stages of life. 4. We found little evidence for an effect of maternal antibodies on juvenile stage immune response, in contrast to results from previous studies. Adult immune response depended largely on the magnitude of the juvenile immune response regardless of the identity of the antigen in the juvenile immune challenge, and did not depend on neonatal IgY titres. Our results are consistent with a priming effect of early immune experience on adult stage immune responsiveness, but we found no evidence of carryover effects of yolk-derived antibodies on adult immunity. 5. This study employs new methodology for investigation of maternal antibodies and presents results suggesting that further studies of maternal effects on immunity will require careful consideration of the numerous ways maternally derived yolk components can impact the different types of immune response.

Predation risk affects the levels of maternal immune factors in avian eggs

“…adaptive allocation, Hasselquist and Nilsson 2009). The adaptive role of high immunoglobulin levels is still controversial (Addison et al 2010, King et al 2010, Staszewski and Siitari 2010). Nevertheless, a large number of studies have supported the adaptive role of allocation of immune factors by showing higher survival, increased growth rate and greater long‐term antibody response in young that received maternal immune factors (Grindstaff et al 2003, 2006, Gasparini et al 2006, Pihlaja et al 2006, Reid et al 2006, Grindstaff 2008).…”

Prenatal and postnatal parental effects on immunity and growth in ‘lactating’ pigeons

“…Indeed, parent and offspring free-living feral pigeons share the risk of exposure to the same deleterious parasites (such as Chlamydia psitacci and Trichomonas), which are responsible for a high nestling and subadult mortality (30% and 50%, respectively, Johnston & Janiga 1995). In this context, the transmission of maternal antibodies to the young may have strong positive effects on offspring fitness by conferring a protection against such parasites through direct protective effects of maternal antibodies and ⁄ or through an enhancement of offspring immune defence (Heeb et al 1998;Kallio et al 2006;Nemeth & Bowen 2007, but see Addison, Ricklefs & Klasing 2010).…”

Antibody injection in the egg yolk: maternal antibodies affect humoral immune response of the offspring

“…Avoiding these potential confounding effects requires the experimental manipulation of Ab levels in isolation (Boulinier & Staszewski 2008). A recent study attempted to avoid these confounding effects by injecting Ab into the yolk sac of newborn chicks (Addison, Ricklefs & Klasing, in press), thus removing the potential effect of these injected Ab on the immune response of the juveniles.…”