Roles of anti-hemagglutinin IgA and IgG antibodies in different sites of the respiratory tract of vaccinated mice in preventing lethal influenza pneumonia

The roles of IgA and IgG antibodies (Abs) against hemagglutinin (HA) in the prevention of lethal influenza pneumonia in vaccinated mice were examined in terms of distribution and concentration of the Abs in the mucus or the serous fluid in different sites of the respiratory tract (RT), mucosa of the nose, trachea, bronchi and bronchioli and the alveolar epithelia of pulmonary acinus. First, the surface areas of the tracheal, bronchial and bronchiolar mucosa and alveolar epithelia were measured to be 20, 260 and 217,433 mm(2), respectively, using serial tissue sections of the trachea and lungs. Then, the volumes of the tracheal mucus, the bronchial and bronchiolar mucus and the serous fluid of alveolar epithelia were estimated to be 0.2, 2.6 and 21.7 mm(3), respectively, by calculating each from the surface area and an assumed thickness of the mucus layer (0.01 mm) or that of the serous fluid (0.0001 mm). Next, anti-HA IgA and IgG Ab responses in the nasal wash, the trachea-lung wash and the trachea wash were measured in BALB/c mice immunized intranasally with an adjuvant-combined A/PR/8/34 (H IN I) virus vaccine and challenged with a lethal dose of the virus. Then the values of Ab responses were converted to the mucus and serous fluid Ab concentration based on two premises that the serum Abs diffuse at a constant rate to the surface of the tracheal, bronchial and bronchiolar mucosa, and that the active transepithelial transport of IgA Abs does not work in the alveolar epithelia. Results showed that 21.4 mug/ml IgA Abs and 3.6 mug/ml IgG Abs in the tracheal mucus (19.1 and 0.3% of the trachea-lung wash IgA and IgG Ab amounts, respectively), 5.9 mug/ml IgA Abs and 3.6 mug/ml IgG Abs in the bronchial and bronchiolar Mucus (66.0 and 3.4% of the trachea-lung wash IgA and IgG Ab amounts, respectively) and about 0.1 mug/ml IgA Abs and 12.3 mug/ml IgG Abs in the serous fluid of alveolar epithelia (14.9 and 96.3% of the trachea-lung wash IgA and IgG Ab amounts, respectively) were present in the vaccinated mice, at which concentrations influenza pneumonia was prevented. Thus, 96.3% of anti-HA IgG Abs in the trachea-lung wash work on the alveolar epithelia, whose surface area is about 800 times larger than that of tracheal, bronchial and bronchiolar mucosa and seem to play a more important role than the mucosal IgA Abs in the prevention of lethal influenza pneumonia. (C) 2003 Elsevier Science Ltd. All rights reserved.