Anti-infective factors in preterm human colostrum.

Feeding of the infection prone preterm neonate with concentrated immunologically active ingredients in the form of colostrum may have even more significant clinical implications than in the full term infants. The scarcity of knowledge on anti-infective factors in colostrum of mothers delivering prematurely prompted us to carry out this study. Colostrum was collected and analysed from 25 mothers delivering prematurely (Study group) and 10 delivering at term (Control group). Major anti-infective factors namely IgA, IgG, IgM, lactoferrin and lysozyme were quantitated and total cell, macrophage, lymphocyte and neutrophil counts were performed. The mean concentrations of IgA, lysozyme and lactoferrin of preterm colostrum were significantly higher than in full term colostrum (p less than 0.001). IgG and IgM were found to be similar in both groups. The absolute counts of total cells, macrophages, lymphocytes and neutrophils were found to be significantly higher in the preterm colostrum as compared to the full term colostrum (p less than 0.001). Though in both the groups IgA was the predominant immunoglobulin, the mean percentage of IgA in the study group was significantly higher as compared to the control group. Degree of prematurity did not have any influence on the anti-infective protein levels in colostrum. However total cells and macrophages were significantly higher in colostrum of mothers delivering severely preterm babies.