Theories Of Antibody Production Have Had A Long And Rich History

This, according to the clonal selection theory, the immune system functions on the “ready-made” rather than the “made-to-measure” principle. The question of how an animal makes so many different antibodies there for become a problem of genetics rather than one of protein chemistry” (Bowden 1006). This means that genetics determine how well the immune system works and this the key to figuring out a way to boost the immune system to help fight of infections and diseases before they even begin to weaken and infect the whole body. If someone decided they wanted to be immune to a snake bite or HIV the only thing that would have to be done is find one person just one that is immune and clone that person gene and add it to the other person who also wants to be immune to a certain disease, physical or chemical problem. “Scientist have grown replacement organs for sheep, rats and rabbits using the animal's own cells and alb molds to help the tissue take shape a technique that could be used someday to make spare parts for

This is immunity in an organism that’s a result from the production of antibodies or lymphocytes after an antigen is identified in the body.

Antibodies are involved in the immune response. They're made up of two light polypeptide chains and two heavy polypeptide chains bonded together. Antibodies have a variable region which acts in a similar way to the active site of an enzyme. Each antibody has a variable region that is the complementary shape for a particular antigen and

g. By using antigen concentration to deduce the path of infection, the body’s immune system may try to fight off the antigen invader. Therefore, a limitation may be that the results are a little skewed as some of the antigens may have been killed by the body’s defense. Also, each person is different, so the body’s response to these foreign objects would have varied.

With the ability to learn, adapt and remember, acquired immunity develops a memory for antigens entering the body, making them able to learn the best way to attack each antigen and develop new memory. Its development takes time after the initial exposure, but post exposure, the antigen is remembered and responses are adequate enough too rapidly dead with the antigen. Lymphocytes (T and B cells) mentioned previously are responsible for the process of acquired immunity, and begins with the response of the antigen allowing antibodies to be produced by B cells, initiating the acquired immune response. There are other components present in this process such as “Dendritic cells”, which break down the antigen so T cells can recognize them more effectively. Also Cytokines which are messengers of the immune system are released when an antigen is

The first important fact is that our body contains less than 30,000 genes and in order to build several antibodies, each gene needs to help in coding for several proteins that form these antibodies. I think it is very important to understand about how our DNA functions to better understand this process of building these antibodies. There are 3 billion pairs of nucleotides in our DNA and we also have 23 pairs of chromosomes where we receive one set from our mother and one from our father. What surprises me the most is that only less than 3% of our DNA contains instructions for cells that form us. The rest is referred to as junk DNA as they don’t play any role in our body. This DNA doesn’t code for anything, but forms a piece of evidence to show human’s relationship with bacteria and viruses. This helps in removing its name of junk DNA. Another concept that the chapter discusses about is Mutation which forms an important piece of knowledge when it comes to how changes have taken place on our DNA over time. Mutations could happen in two ways. One way could be where the DNA is not copied right and some minor errors are made. These errors are good

Autoimmune diseases are a growing concern in the American population. An estimated 10 million Americans suffer from autoimmune diseases with 75% of these cases being of women. Furthermore, autoimmune diseases have grown to be within the top 10 causes of death among American women. The incidences of these diseases have been shown to increase with financial wealth, industrial development, and the modern progression of life. As such, the occurrence of these conditions is expected to grow as time passes. With such a notable modern influence, it is shocking that these diseases were not considered of clinical relevance until the 1950s. The investigation of the mechanisms of the propagation of these diseases have been of immense scientific relevance ever since. The complicated immunological background behind infection and treatment of autoimmune diseases while interesting from a scientists perspective, means that from the perspective of treatment there is a long arduous path until new, efficient treatments will show an appreciable decrease in the occurrence of these diseases within American population.

Humans’ body contains cells, that are build from small molecules - antigens, whose are composed in such a way that they are unique for each individual. While developing, the body learns to perceive antigens as the cells that are harmless. However, if other antigens are attached to them, for example, bacterial

Immunology basically involves understanding the immune system and how it responds to various disease conditions. the immune system consists of a number of components. Traditionally, it is divided into humoral and cellular immune responses. It can also be distinguished into innate and adaptive immunity. The innate immunity can discriminate between normal tissues , self and newly encountered non-self-proteins while the adaptive immunity is the more complex system aimed at the eradication of intracellular pathogens. To do this, antigen derived from such pathogens that are often new to the host organism, need to be recognised by receptor-bearing specialised immune cells which respond to a complex system of stimulatory and costimulatory signals. Better understanding of the human immune system has led to the identification of a number of tumor-associated antigens in the 1980s and the development of various immunotherapeutic approaches. In recent years, identification of the specific antigenic MHC class I epitopes, advancements in genetic engineering, gene delivery, and cell-based therapeutic approaches allowed development of the novel immunotherapeutics.

“Sometime between December 1980 and March 1981, a doctor by the name of Dr. Michael Gattlieb from the University of California Los Angeles was called to investigate three patients with a dieses that nobody in the United Stated had seen before.”(Check 19)”Sure enough, when Dr. Gottlieb drew a vital of blood from each patient and measured a special kind of immune cell called a T-Helper Lymphcyte, all three patients’ test gave the same startling result. It was clear that they had profound deficient immune systems.”(Check 20) It later became known as AIDS.

The organs that make up the lymphatic and immune system are the tonsils, spleen, thymus gland, lymph nodes, and lymphatic vessels. White blood cells (leukocytes), red blood cells (erythrocytes), plasma, and platelets (thrombocytes) make up the blood. Lymphocytes are leukocytes (white blood cells) that help the body fight off diseases. Two types of lymphocytes are B cells and T cells. Lymphocytes recognize antigens, or foreign substances/matter, in the body. Lymphocytes are a classification of agranulocytes, or cells (-cytes) without (a-) granules (granul/o) in the cytoplasm. B cells are created from stem cells, which are located in the bone marrow. B cells respond to antigens by becoming plasma cells. These plasma cells then create antibodies. Memory B cells produce a stronger response with the next exposure to the antigen. B cells fight off infection and bacteria while T cells defend against viruses and cancer cells. A hormone created by the thymus gland called thymosin changes lymphocytes into T cells. The thymus gland is active when you are a child and slowly shrinks, as you get older. T cells bind to the antigens on the cells and directly attack them. T cells secrete lymphokines that increase T cell production and directly kill cells with antigens. There are three types of T cells: cytotoxic T cells, helper T cells, and memory T cells.

Red and white blood cells are the two types of blood cells in the human body. Red blood cells transport oxygen around the body which is transferred through the bloodstream. It moves oxygen into the body and then removes it. They are absorbed through its haemoglobin.

Immunoglobulin (Ig) or Antibody (AB) is a protein that is in the shape of a Y that is produced by plasma cells and use by the immune system. These proteins are then utilized to identify and attack bacteria and viruses. Immunoglobulin is clearly a very important protein in our human bodies as well as being very integral to our survival and our ability to fend off foreign molecules. This has lead to a lot of deep research regarding this protein. By knowing the proteins exact structure and functions there will be a larger understanding of how our bodies actually work and how we can improve our health to live longer and better lives. This is exactly what will be looked at throughout this paper, the research, structure, function and behavior of the protein Immunoglobulin (Ig).

Lymphocytes that become part of antibody-mediated immunity arm of the adaptive immune response develop in the:

Abbas, A.K., Basic immunology : functions and disorders of the immune system. 4th ed. ed, ed. A.H. Lichtman and S. Pillai. 2014, Philadelphia, PA.: Philadelphia, PA. : Elsevier Saunders.