Newborn infants have little or no secretory IgA (SIgA) at birth. Earlier studies suggest that premature infants do not significantly differ from term babies in their rate of acquisition of SIgA.

Therefore we have studied the interactions of IgA and human monocyte monolayer cultures. Secretory IgA derived from human breast milk and/or IgA derived from an EBV B cell line were used in these ...