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. 2017 Mar 1;8(5):479–485. doi: 10.1080/19490976.2017.1299847

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© 2017 The Author(s). Published with license by Taylor & Francis.

This is an Open Access article distributed under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial-NoDerivatives License (http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nc-nd/4.0/), which permits non-commercial re-use, distribution, and reproduction in any medium, provided the original work is properly cited, and is not altered, transformed, or built upon in any way.

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Figure 2. — Maternal antibodies help in the transfer of microbial products to the offspring. Metabolites from the intestinal microbiota of the mother resulting from transient gestational colonization of the dam are transferred to the offspring antenatally via the placenta and postnatally through the maternal milk and induce immune maturation of the offspring intestinal mucosa, such as an increase in NKp46⁺ type 3 innate lymphoid cell (ILC3) and in intestinal mononuclear cell (iMNC) numbers. Expression of genes for antimicrobial peptides, mucus production and antibody secretion (pIgR: polymeric immunoglobuline receptor) were upregulated in intestinal epithelial cells in the offspring. Maternal antibodies (green: IgG, blue: dimeric IgA) mediated these effects, probably by more efficiently retaining microbial products in the maternal organism and transporting them to the placenta and/or the breast milk.