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The reaction between an antigen and an antibody is called the antigen-antibody reaction. Antigen can originate either from within the body ("self-protein" or "self antigens") or from the external environment ("non-self"). [2] The immune system identifies and attacks "non-self" external antigens.
An antibody can be called monospecific if it has specificity for a single antigen or epitope, [74] or bispecific if it has affinity for two different antigens or two different epitopes on the same antigen. [75] A group of antibodies can be called polyvalent (or unspecific) if they have affinity for various antigens [76] or microorganisms. [76]
The antigens and antibodies combine by a process called agglutination. It is the fundamental reaction in the body by which the body is protected from complex foreign molecules, such as pathogens and their chemical toxins. In the blood, the antigens are specifically and with high affinity bound by antibodies to form an antigen-antibody complex.
In the first case, after internalisation, the antigens are enclosed in vesicles called endosomes. There are three compartments involved in this antigen presentation pathway: early endosomes, late endosomes or endolysosomes and lysosomes , where antigens are hydrolized by lysosome-associated enzymes (acid-dependent hydrolases, glycosidases ...
There are three basic variants of immunoglobulin antigens in humans that share a very similar chemical structure but are distinctly different. Red circles show where there are differences in chemical structure in the antigen-binding site (sometimes called the antibody-combining site) of human immunoglobulin.
The adaptive immune response is antigen-specific and requires the recognition of specific "non-self" antigens during a process called antigen presentation. Antigen specificity allows for the generation of responses that are tailored to specific pathogens or pathogen-infected cells.
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In this arrangement there were cells that were 'blank' or had new specificities, these new antigens were called "W" antigens, and as they were reassigned to new groups, for example "A" serotypes, they became Aw or Bw antigens. It was found that some antigens that behaved like A and B antigens but could be excluded based on '2-type max' exclusion.