Suppressors in the Network of Immunity

Abstract

The immune system is gradually being revealed as an incredibly complex network of interacting cells and their molecular products, which counterbalance one another and are influenced in their relative effects by contact with antigenic molecules of the external environment. According to one hypothesis,¹ now supported by data obtained in an expanding array of experimental immunologic systems, antigens from the environment confront various antigen-reactive cells that pre-exist in the organism. The cells carrying receptor molecules with relatively strong affinity for a particular antigen are stimulated to undergo clonal expansion. Among the progeny of the antigen-reactive cells are B lymphocytes whose eventual . . .