Abstract
The term antigen was originally employed to describe any substance capable of stimulating a specific immune response. However, its usage has been broadened in recent years to include any substance which may not by itself be able to produce immunity but is capable of reacting specifically with antibodies or immune lymphocytes present naturally or stimulated by a closely related antigen. The term immunogen, on the other hand, characterizes materials able to cause specific immunity in an appropriate host. Since these definitions are operational and depend on the response of a lymphoid system which encounters an immunogen rather than on intrinsic molecular properties of the substance itself, it is not surprising that antigens share very few properties. In fact, the only truly common property may be that there exists in the DNA code of some host information capable of dictating the synthesis of a protein capable of combining specifically with each antigen. Most antigens are naturally occurring macromolecules, especially proteins and polysaccharides, although antibodies reacting with lipids and nucleic acids do occur. However, much of the work carried out during the past 15–20 years on the nature of the immune response has employed small snythetic molecules since the specificity of the immune reactions to such compounds can be studied more precisely. These small nonimmunogenic haptens are capable of stimulating the production of specific antibody if they are covalently linked to an immunogen.
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© 1981 Plenum Publishing Corporation
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McDuffie, F.C. (1981). Antigens and Immunogens. In: Safai, B., Good, R.A. (eds) Immunodermatology. Comprehensive Immunology, vol 7. Springer, Boston, MA. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-1-4615-7228-2_2
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DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/978-1-4615-7228-2_2
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