Establishment and Functional Implications of B‐cell Connectivity
- 1 August 1989
- journal article
- Published by Wiley in Immunological Reviews
- Vol. 110 (1), 89-103
- https://doi.org/10.1111/j.1600-065x.1989.tb00028.x
Abstract
We have discussed some aspects of the structure of the normal immune system, particularly the B-cell compartment. We have argued: that a basic property of the natural antibody repertoire is constituted by high degrees of connectivity within the immune system as well as between the system and other components of the organism; that the complementarities constituting this connectivity are based on self-self interactions, high degrees of degeneracy or somatically selected interactions and that these properties are conserved through evolution, to ensure self-reference; that by evolutionary selection, antibody V-genes encoding such structural properties are ensured to be expressed early in ontogeny. The set of highly connected cells will be kept through ontogeny and form the basis for a compartment of naturally-activated lymphocytes making up 10-15% of the total lymphocyte population. As suggested before, this pool of connected cells may be responsible for maintenance of normal network dynamics and prevention of autoaggression.Keywords
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