IgG Mediated Protection Against Listeria Monocytogenes in Pregnant Women

Listeria monocytogenes is a very dangerous pathogen to pregnant women because it can cross the placenta and cause a lot of problems for the baby. And what this paper showed is that only in pregnancy was a particular post translational antibody modification, aka glycosylation modification happened only during pregnancy. If you got rid of B cells in mom, that is, if you immunized mom preconceptionally, so if you primed her with a listeria antigen pre pregnancy, those antibodies were not protective in the babies. However, if you primedHer during pregnancy, she was protected.