The in vitro transfer of bovine immune lactoglobulin across the intestine of new‐born pigs

Abstract

1. Everted sacs of pig intestine, used soon after birth, maintained transmural potentials and transferred water and glucose to the serosal surface. 2. Immune globulin, fed as bovine colostrum to the new‐born pig, appeared in the serosal fluid of everted sacs during incubation in bicarbonate saline. The particular segment showing maximum transferring ability varied between limits and appeared to depend on the amount or concentration of colostrum fed to the pig. Sacs from unfed pigs incubated in bovine colostrum also transferred colostral IgG to the serosal fluid. This transfer was dependent on the concentration of colostral IgG in the incubation medium and became more pronounced in the middle third of the small intestine. 3. Human serum albumin inhibited the transfer of colostral IgG and about twenty molecules of albumin were transferred for every molecule of colostral IgG, when both were presented together in equal concentration on the basis of weight, to the middle segment of the small intestine. 4. Some of the immune globulin collected in vitro after feeding bovine colostrum was found in a degraded form, but the amounts present could not be estimated. There was no apparent degradation of immune globulin in the purely in vitro experiments. 5. The in vitro transfer of bovine colostral IgG showed selectivity between molecules of albumin and colostral IgG, the nature of which warrants further study.

Changes in colostral and serum IgG content in swine in relation to time

“…The presence of IgG in a great proportion of the sera of newborn pigs is in accordance with some reports (Pierce and Smith, 1967;Porter, 1969;Prokesova et al, 1969;Porter and Hill, 1970;Yabiki et al, 1974;Movsesijan et al, 1977;Chaniago et al, 1978) but contrasts with others (Lecce and Matrone, 1960;Kim et al, 1966a, b). The presence of IgG could possibly be explained by the development of immunocompetence by pig foetuses after about 70 days of gestation (Jousson, 197h;Metzger et al, 1978;Watson et al, 1979).…”

“…The mean IgG content of the colostrum of different sows, as also shown by others (Pierce and Smith, 1967;Jensen and Pedersen, 1979), showed marked variation.…”

Characteristic Transfer of Colostral Components into Cerebrospinal Fluid via Serum in Neonatal Pigs

“…It has been shown that the intestine of neonatal pigs absorbs homologous and heterologous proteins [3][4][5][6], other colostral proteins [7][8][9], and nonprotein macromolecules [10,11,13,15]. Kiriyama et al [14] reported that IgG, a small protein fraction and casein contained in colostrum were transported selectively into the systemic circulation.…”

“…Neonatal pigs absorb a wide variety of macromolecules such as homologous and heterologous proteins [3][4][5][6], other colostral proteins [7][8][9] and even nonprotein macromolecules [10][11][12][13] from the intestine to the blood for about the first 36 h of life. Kiriyama et al [3,14] reported that IgG in the colostrum is selectively absorbed through the intestinal lumen and transported into the systemic circulation via two routes, capillary vessels and lymph ducts in the neonatal pig.…”

Interdependence of albumin and sodium transport in the foetal and new‐born pig intestine

“…Results obtained in this way differ in some important respects from others where the protein fed to animals has been recovered later from lymph or blood. Thus the apparent inability of the new-born pig intestine to distinguish between different proteins administered orally (Lecce, Matrone & Morgan, 1961;Pierce & Smith, 1967a) is not seen in vitro, the everted sac transporting albumin in marked preference to immune globulin (Pierce & Smith, 1966, 1967b. This demonstration of selectivity is interesting, but the many differences that exist between molecules of albumin and immune globulin, their size, shape and electrical charge at a physiological pH, limit what can usefully be said about the precise mechanism of transport.…”