Placental Transfer of IgG and IgG Subclass Antibodies Anti-Purified Escherichia coli LPS O16, O6 and O111

We evaluated 22 paired maternal and cord sera regarding the presence of IgG and IgG subclasses against purified Escherichia coli LPS O6, O16 and O111 employing ELISA for titre and avidity analysis, isoelectric focusing associated with affinity-blotting for spectrotypic analysis, and the Western-blotting technique for recognition of the various bands in lipopolysaccharide (LPS). Levels of anti-LPS IgG antibodies in cord sera were equivalent to their respective maternal sera, showing a significant correlation ( P  < 0.0001). IgG1 antibody levels were higher in cord sera than in maternal sera ( P  < 0.005 for anti-O111, P  < 0.05 for anti-O16 and P  < 0.02 for anti-O6). Cord IgG2 antibody levels were not different from the maternal levels ( P  > 0.1). The levels of IgG3 and IgG4 were undetectable. The avidity of anti-O6 and anti-O111 IgG in 10 cord sera showed an extremely significant correlation with maternal antibody avidity ( P  < 0.0001). Identical patterns of recognition were found in the paired samples analysed by Western blotting. Most of the serum samples recognized the O-repetitive chains and also the region corresponding to core and lipid A. Although the antibody spectrotypes varied among individuals, paired cord and maternal serum samples showed identical patterns. Our findings suggest the occurrence of placental transfer of IgG antibodies against LPS O6, O16 and O111, mainly involving the IgG1 or IgG2 subclasses.