They come from their elctrophoretic mobility when all were alpha beta or
gamma globulins. IE the trechnique fractionated serum into three
groups. The others come from the next symbols in the greek alphabet as
they were described eg delta.
On Wed, 9 Nov 1994 mdcabl at cc.newcastle.edu.au wrote:
> Hi all,
> Just wondering, where did the names for the immunoglobins come from. IgE
> denotes erythema. I think IgG is for gamma, but how were IgA, IgD and IgM
> named? Please post your replies. I'll bet I'm not the only immunologist that
> don't know the history of immunoglobin names. BTW I got the IgE ref from
> Silverstien's History of Immunology. He neglected to track the history of
> the naming conventions of all the immunoglobins. Also, how did we get the silly
> nomenclature for pepsin digests of IgG. F(ab')2 looks like a calculus problem.
> I think F= fragment and ab=antigen binding but what's the prime symbol for?
> Cheers!
> Allen Black
> Dept. of Pathology
> Univ. of Newcastle
>>
