Hi all,
I got a little more info from Cin. Physiol. Biochem. 1:63-91 (1983) "From the
first to the last of the immunoglobins" by Frank Putnam.
Unfortunately, it didn't give much historical background about the Ig names.
However, it has a wonderful discussion of IgD. It also gave a nice history of
the light chains. Here's the dope:
The kappa and lambda chains were discovered in 1845 in the urine of multiple
myeloma patients by Henry Bence Jones. It was the first tumor marker protein
discovered. In the 1950's immunoelectrophoresis allowed the Bence-Jones
protein to be "definitively classified by Korngold and Lipari into two distinct
serological types now called kappa and lambda, the Greek letters taken from
their names."
I'm at a bit of a dead end on the names of IgD and IgA but I'll keep trying to
find out and let you all know the result.
Cheers,
Allen
______________________________________________________________________________
Allen Black *
Univ. of Newcastle * *
Dept. of Pathology '
mdcabl at cc.newcastle.edu.au *
*
"The opinions expressed herein represent those of others and not my own, and
any institution including but not limited to public education, the government
and/or my parents is expressly liable for those statements"
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