: i dont think that you mean to say that an idiotype is a linear peptide
: at all. in fact i _know_ you dont mean to say that. as my mentor always
: says:>>> "ralph, antibodys and tcells cant read" and that is what you seem
: to be saying......and this is not what jerne was talking about.
: idiotypes/idiotypic networks are there to regulate levels of antigen
: receptors. this includes tcrs to tcr peptides as well as antibodies to
: antibodies and tcrs. use medline to look up almost any marchalonis et al.,
: or nov-dec 1994 pnas lake et al., to see some recent network theory, ect.
B cells process and present their immunoglobulins, much as they process
and present all self proteins that are synthesized in the cytoplasm. In
the course of doing so, they will generate peptides that are derived from
the region that comprises their B cell idiotype, and such peptides will
be presented in association with either or both of MHC Class I and Class
II for recognition by CD8+ and CD4+ T cells, respectively. To confirm
that I am not making up this stuff, please consult articles by Sigfried
Weiss and Bjarne Bogen (I believe those are their names).
By the way, T cells also process and present their idiotypes, and it has
been proposed that their is an idiotype network of T cells based upon
recognition of idiotypes presented by T cells. If I am not mistaken,
this is felt to be the mechanism of protection against experimental
allergic encephalomyelitis by immunization with anti-myelin basic protein
T cell clones (anti-ergotypic T cells or something like this).
So once again I ask, How do T cells distinguish foreign antigens from
idiotypes presented by B cells? Why should the former activate and the
latter not?
Ephraim Fuchs
