I confess this topic was new to me. I have just ended some researches
in PubMed and Google and what it seems to me is that transfer factor
is just dried cow colostrum sold at very high price.
Apart from price, maybe it effectively protects against some diseases
: the question is how does it can.
Mammalian colostrum contains a lot of secretory antibodies and
immunostimulating cytokines. It seems to me the latter are far more
important than the former for newborn passive immunity. Anyway none of
them can account for transfer of specific immunity against a given
pathogen. But we also know many infectious organisms can be passed via
transcolostral transmission : I know transfer factor is at least
pasteurized and probably sterilized, but such formulation still
contains antigens and hence it could be considered just as a mix of
"subunit oral vaccines" where mother's cytokines replace artificial
adjuvants.
Anyway my opinion is that we can't say how transfer factor exactly
acts until we know what it exactly consists of ... We need more work
from chemists !
Further I can't see no difference between commercial formulations of
transfer factor and drinking a glass of fresh milk, apart from the
price !
Hope more informated people can hoin this thread !
Daniele
