The Lack of Absorption of Ingested Bovine Antibody in Humans

[摘要] In the past few years several articles in professional journals (1, 2, 3) and numerous reports in the public press have claimed that antibodies in cows' milk are absorbed in active form via the human gastrointestinal tract. Further, it has been suggested that by using milk from appropriately immunized cows, this method of passive immunization may be employed with benefit in the treatment of such human diseases as pollen allergies. So attractive is this hypothesis that clinical trials of milk from ragweed pollen immunized cows have been conducted in ragweed sensitive patients without, however, any apparent benefit (4). In these clinical trials the lack of a relatively pure antigen makes it impossible to determine quantitatively the amount of antibody in the milk or in the subject's serum after ingestion of milk, so that all results must be based on subjective observations.

[学科分类] 生物科学（综合）