A Modification of Jerne's Theory of Antibody Production using the Concept of Clonal Selection

摘要

There are three current theoretical interpretations of antibody production which, following Talmage (1957) may be referred to as the direct template theory in which the antigen serves as a template against which the specific pattern of the antibody is synthesized, the indirect template theory which postulates a secondary template incorporated into the genetic-synthetic processes of the antibody producing cells (Burnet, 1956), and the natural selection theory in which the antigen acts essentially by selection for excess production, of natural antibody molecules of corresponding type (Jerne, 1955). The two latter theories were devised primarily to account for two sets of phenomena for which the direct template theory seems quite irrevelant. The first is the absence of immunologieal response to 'self' constituents and the related phenomena of imraunological tolerance; the second is the evidence that antibody production can continue in the absence of antigen. Some means for the recognition and differentiation of potentially antigenic components of the body from foreign organic material must be provided in any acceptable formulation. In Burnet and Fenner's (1949) account a positive recognition of 'self material was aseribed to the presence of 'self-markers' in all potentially antigenic macromolecules, and corresponding recognition units in the scavenger cells of the body. At the time it was regarded as inconceivable that a mechanism could exist which would recognise in positive fashion all foreign material and no attempt was made to devise one, despite the fact that we have always recognised the clumsy character of the self-marker self-recognition scheme.