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The Concept of Idiotypic Network: Deficient or Premature?

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Theories of Immune Networks

Part of the book series: Springer Series in Synergetics ((SSSYN,volume 46))

Abstract

“A discovery is premature if its implications cannot be connected by a series of simple logical steps to canonical, or generally accepted, knowledge” (1). If this is true, then the discovery of the idiotype-anti-idiotype network of lymphocytes (2) must be considered premature, since to this date it has not been successfully integrated, logically, into the growing body of knowledge about the immune system. Alternatively, the network hypothesis itself or the “accepted knowledge”, or both, are deficient. I shall argue in favor of the second possibility. But first I shall briefly refer to the body of knowledge and discuss whether the analytical tools in the hands of theoretical immunologists are capable of integrating or reshaping it in any substantial way.

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Author information

Authors and Affiliations

  1. Department of Physiology and Pharmacology, Sackler Faculty of Medicine, Tel Aviv University, Tel Aviv, 69978, Israel

    Z. Grossman

  2. Pittsburgh Cancer Institute, USA

    Z. Grossman

Authors
  1. Z. Grossman
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Editor information

Editors and Affiliations

  1. Department of Medical Biophysics, Hadassah University Hospital, P.O. Box 12000, IL-51120, Jerusalem, Israel

    Henri Atlan

  2. Faculté de Médecine, Broussait-Hotel Dieu, Université de Paris VI, 15 rue de l’Ecole de Médecine, F-75008, Paris, France

    Henri Atlan

  3. The Weizmann Institute of Science, Rehovot, Israel

    Irun R. Cohen

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© 1989 Springer-Verlag Berlin, Heidelberg

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Grossman, Z. (1989). The Concept of Idiotypic Network: Deficient or Premature?. In: Atlan, H., Cohen, I.R. (eds) Theories of Immune Networks. Springer Series in Synergetics, vol 46. Springer, Berlin, Heidelberg. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-642-83935-1_5

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  • DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-642-83935-1_5

  • Publisher Name: Springer, Berlin, Heidelberg

  • Print ISBN: 978-3-642-83937-5

  • Online ISBN: 978-3-642-83935-1

  • eBook Packages: Springer Book Archive

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