The level of antibodies to the proteins of cow's milk in the serum of normal human infants

Abstract

The coated tanned red cell technique has been used to measure the level of serum antibody in normal infants to the proteins of cow's milk.

In 286 sera of infants between the ages of 7 and 97 weeks titres up to 1000 were found with the mode around 64. This distribution was quite different from that found with adult and infant cord sera. Antibodies specific for casein, α-lactalbumin and bovine plasma albumin were shown to be present but none could be shown to β-lactoglobulin.

The object of the study was to get evidence that some normal infants were sufficiently sensitized to cow's milk proteins to support the hypothesis that sudden `cot death' in infants is due to an anaphylactic type of reaction consequent on inhalation of cow's milk.