[Immunological study of colostrum].

Breast milk has many advantages over cow's milk in feeding of infants. Breast-fed newborns usually have much less chance of infections than do bottle-fed ones. In this communication, the cellular and humoral immunocompetent components in the colostra of 80 mothers were studied. The results showed: 1) Colostrum contained a large number of viable leukocytes as blood, but the vast majority was monocyte/macrophage (63.76%); 2) T and B lymphocytes were present in the colostrum, the number of T cell was much less than that of the blood; 3) The colostral mononuclear cells (MNC) had lymphoproliferative responses to mitogens and the mitogenic capability decreased gradually postpartum; 4) The colostral MNC were able to produce interleukin 2, and 5) Immunoglobulins G, A and M and C3 and C4 were present in small amount in the colostrum, however, the concentration of IgA was nearly half of that of the blood. In conclusion, colostrum contains a lot of cellular and humoral immunocompetent components which will confer newborns with passive immunity to various microorganisms.