Student Theses and Dissertations

Date of Award

1981

Document Type

Thesis

Degree Name

Doctor of Philosophy (PhD)

Thesis Advisor

Henry Kunkel

Keywords

immunoglobulins, B lineage, plasma cells, myeloma, antigen specificity, protein structure

Abstract

The specificity of the immune response to antigen was first appreciated by the study of serum immunoglobulins (Igs). The subpopulation of lymphoid cells that synthesize these molecules are so defined as members of the B lineage; the end-stage cell type of this lineage is the plasma cell. The acceptance, over the past thirty years, of myeloma proteins as normal products of plasma cells in clonal overgrowth (Kunkel, 1966) has provided both a homogeneous source for study and a paradigm. The structural characteristics of Igs which form the basis of specificity can now be, literally, seen in three dimensions; it is likely that all other antigen-reactive molecules, of different cell types in the system, will share similar structural characteristics.

Comments

A thesis presented to the faculty of The Rockefeller University in partial fulfillment of the requirements for the degree of Doctor of Philosophy

License and Reuse Information

Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial-ShareAlike 4.0 International License
This work is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial-Share Alike 4.0 International License.

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