Dj. Ormrod et Te. Miller, MILK FROM HYPERIMMUNIZED DAIRY-COWS AS A SOURCE OF A NOVEL BIOLOGICALRESPONSE MODIFIER, Agents and actions, 38, 1993, pp. 146-149
Laboratory investigations have established that hyperimmunization of d
airy cows with a polyvalent bacterial vaccine results in the secretion
of biologically active substances into the milk. One of these factors
, a low molecular weight anti-inflammatory agent (HIMF), has been stud
ied in detail. The evidence supports the hypothesis that HIMF suppress
es inflammation by inhibiting neutrophil emigration. Additionally, the
experiments suggested that HIMF was capable of modifying the host res
ponse to infection and lymphocyte function. These effects have conside
rable clinical potential and were therefore investigated further. Intr
avenous administration of HIMF to rats with subcutaneous E. coli infec
tion reduced the influx of neutrophils in the early phase of infection
by as much as 73%. HIMF suppressed the host vs. graft but not the gra
ft vs. host reaction and resulted in an increase in spleen weight and
the number of splenic lymphocytes. The lymphocyte response to concanav
alin A was also abrogated by the agent. These data indicate that HIMF
may be useful for the inhibition of tissue destructive infectious proc
esses, and in situations where suppression of lymphocyte function is d
esirable.