Part U 



Mechanism of Antibody Formation 



A. THE FACTORS CONTROLLING THE PRODUCTION AND 

 PERSISTENCE OF ANTIBODY 



A PRESENTATION of a chain of reactions leading to the appearance 

 of immune bodies in response to an antigenic stimulus in the 

 complex in vivo environment is obviously impossible because of present 

 lack of precise information. It is likewise difficult to ascertain the nature 

 of the factors which influence the rate of formation, rise and decline in 

 the amount of, and eventual disappearance of antibody from humoral 

 systems. An approximation to these questions may, perhaps, be 

 achieved by an analysis of the available results which may have bearing 

 on these questions. The following discussion is an attempt in this 

 direction. 



1. The Relation of the Specificities of Host Enzymes 

 to the Antigenicity of Substances Foreign to the Species 

 of the Host 



In connection with the problems pertaining to immune response to 

 an antigenic stimulus, there are two questions into which we need to 

 inquire. They are: 



a. The absence of an immune response to an antigenic substance 

 derived from one individual in another belonging to the same 

 species;* and 



*There are reported certain results which might appear to be not in full agreement 

 with the view here discussed. For example, Hektoen and Schulhof (1925) reported 

 that a rabbit thyroglohulin produced a precipitin in a rabbit. Also overlapping precip- 

 itin reactions were obtained among thyroglobulins of beef, dog, horse and human; 

 human and rat; horse, human and sheep; beef, sheep and human, and swine, human, 

 sheep and dog. On the other hand, Stokinger and Heidelberger (1937) demonstrated 

 definite species differences among various thyroglobulins in addition to organ speci- 

 ficity, corresponding in general to the biological relationship of the animals from 



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