Definition
Immunity conferred by antibody production.
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Antibodies are produced by lymphocytes (B lympohocytes and plasma cells) and are proteins of molecular weight 150,000–900,000 kD. One end of the antibody (the Fab region) binds to an antigen, and the other end (the Fc region) is responsible for effector functions. Antibodies capture antigens for which they have specificity and perform a variety of functions including agglutination, opsonization (facilitating phagocytosis), neutralization of toxins, and complement activation. Patients with defective humoral immunity are particularly susceptible to certain types of infections, especially those caused by encapsulated organisms. Although antibodies are designed to recognize foreign antigens, they can occasionally attack native antigens, causing a variety of autoimmune diseases depending on which specific autoantigen is recognized and attacked.
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© 2004 Springer-Verlag
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(2004). Humoral immunity. In: Moreland, L.W. (eds) Rheumatology and Immunology Therapy. Springer, Berlin, Heidelberg. https://doi.org/10.1007/3-540-29662-X_1266
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DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/3-540-29662-X_1266
Publisher Name: Springer, Berlin, Heidelberg
Print ISBN: 978-3-540-20625-5
Online ISBN: 978-3-540-29662-1
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