Congenital Syphilis and the Timing of Immunogenesis in the Human Fœtus

Abstract

RESULTS obtained in the study of immunologieal tolerance have lent credence to the generalization that the mammalian fœtus is incapable throughout gestation of responding specifically to an antigenic stimulus. Data are accumulating, however, which suggest that in at least some mammalian species the fœtus may be able to mount an immunological response. Schinckel and Ferguson¹ demonstrated that the fœtal lamb is capable of rejecting adult skin homografts in a manner comparable to that of the adult sheep. Fennestad and Borg-Petersen² reported that fœtal calves infected in utero with Leptospira could be shown at birth to have a higher anti-Leptospira titre than their mothers. Uhr³ has observed that fœtal guinea pigs are capable of an active production of delayed hypersensitivity against protein antigens. We have observed⁴, following injection of antigenic stimuli into the fœtal lamb, the production of γ-globulin and of antibody by the normally agamma-globulinæmic fœtus. Finally, the older literature⁵ contains a number of references to the occurrence in congenital syphilis of Wassermann titres higher in the new-born's serum than in that of the mother, and to positive Wassermann titres in the child's serum in the presence of negative maternal serology. We may anticipate that future investigations will establish the earliest time of appearance of immunological differentiation in some of these species.