Antibodies genetic basis

Siekevitz, M., Huang, S.Y., Gefter, M.L. (1983). The genetic basis of antibody production a single heavy chain variable region gene encodes all molecules bearing the dominant anti-arsonate idiotype in the strain A mouse. Eur. J. Immunol. 13, 123-132. 

Failure of intrinsic factor secretion is commonly a result of autoimmune disease 90% of patients with pernicious anemia have complement-fixing antibodies in the cytosol of the gastric parietal cells. Similar autoantibodies are found in 30% of the relatives of pernicious anemia patients, suggesting that there is a genetic basis for the condition. 

Perhaps the most important problem in structural immunology and immunochemistry today is an understanding of antibody complementarity in terms of three-dimensional structure since this should provide new insights leading to the genetic basis for the generation of diversity and will open new perspectives for research in cellular immunology. More precisely one would like to know the mechanism by... 

The existence of such variation in the N-terminal half of the light chains while the C-terminal half remained constant was a new phenomenon in protein chemistry. As the number of sequences increased and as such data on mouse Bence Jones proteins and later on heavy chains of immunoglobulins were accumulated, it became clear that understanding the nature of the structural and genetic basis for the variable domains of both chains was crucial to understanding antibody specificity. 

The antibody deficiency associated with certain conditions is believed to result somehow from those conditions, to which it is therefore called secondary. Secondary AG and DG are 10-100 times commoner than the primary forms, which mostly occur on a genetic basis and are considered below (Section 5). 

Animals to be used for immunological research show pronounced differences in their capacity to respond to specific antigens, including those containing carbohydrates. Such differences are genetically controlled and the selection of animals for immunization should be on the basis of a preliminary test. It is well to immunize a group of animals for short periods, and select those individuals which give the best response in preliminary trials for futher immunization and for production of antibodies. 

Qll There is both a genetic and environmental component in type 1 diabetes. The pathological basis of the condition is autoimmune destruction of the pancreatic islet cells, which is said to be associated with genetic and environmental factors such as viral infection. It has been shown that antibodies to islet cells and insulin autoantibody (IAA) can exist for years before the occurrence of symptoms, possibly as a result of the autoimmune processes the IAA may form during the process of active islet and /1-cell destruction. Both insulin and glucagon play a role in the development of hyperglycaemia and hyperketonaemia, since both a- and /1-cell functions are abnormal in diabetes. Both a lack of insulin and a relative excess of glucagon coexist in type 1 diabetes, and so the metabolic abnormalities that occur are likely to be caused by both hormones. 

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