Dear Colleagues:
I'm a bacteriologist, not an immunologist, and found this topic
of discussion fascinating. I recall that several years ago I read where,
instead of my perception that proteins are digested and broken down into basic
amino acids, there was a report that large components, if not the whole
protein, got into the blood stream. Is this true?
It struck me that if a protein gets into the blood stream by the
intestinal tract and is tolerated whereas if it is directly injected it may
cause an immune response (anaphylaxis), then there must be some "book-keeping"
(labelling , glycosylation, processing, conformational changes) going on to
identify the method of entry.
Comments?....John
