Humoral immunity to Candida albicans (anti-candida antibody titers) in premature infants.

Although the role of humoral and cell mediated immunity in neonatal defense against candida infections is not precisely defined, one of the contributing immunologic factors may be a lack of decreased specific passive humoral immunity. Thus, serum samples from the umbilical veins of 98 term gestation and 105 premature neonates (majority less than 33 wk gestation) and their mothers (n = 100) were tested for the presence of hemagglutinating antibodies to commercially available candida antigen. The titers of candida antibodies (mean log2 +/- SEM) were significantly higher in 11 term neonates (4.73 +/- 0.69) of mothers with high antibody titers (5.18 +/- 0.40, less than 0.001) as contrasted with 87 normal term (2.38 +/- 0.15) and 105 premature (2.87 +/- 0.15) infants with normal mothers (1.96 +/- 0.13 and 3.31 +/- 0.26, respectively). Contrary to our belief 81% of term infants and all of the preterm infants (majority less than 33 wk gestation) had passive specific anti-candida antibody titers less than 1:16.