The Production of Antibodies

Abstract

This monograph is a revision of the 1941 edition, in which the authors emphasized their conviction that antibody production is a biologic phenomenon to be interpreted on biologic rather than on chemical or pseudochemical lines. Subsequent investigations on the relations of genes, enzymes, antigens and cellular protein synthesis, as well as the recognition of the role of lymphocytes and plasma cells, which supersede the reticuloendothelial cells in antibody production, have altered the discussions of the relevant sections. In the present edition the authors introduce the "self marker" concept as their hypothesis to explain absence of antigenicity of the body's own constituents and the failure of mammalian or avian embryos to produce antibody.