Torsten Boerchers <borcher at uni-muenster.de> wrote:
>Keld Sorensen <KeldS at uic.edu> wrote:
>>You could couple the protein to one of the common
>>carriers, such as KLH or whatever.
>>Keld.
>>>>>>>Dear Keld and Bob,
>Is this really true? It does at least not fit to my understanding
>of antibody diversity
snip
Torsten,
Yes, it's really true. B cell tolerance does not seem to be rigidly enforced
for a great many self antigens. The autoimmunity is prevented by regulating the
T cells. By coupling a self antigen to a foreign carrier you provide to those B
cells which can bind the self antigen a lot of possible foreign epitopes to
present to helper T cells. These can then activate those B cells. This should
work for many more self antigens than not.
Troels' suggestion is also a good one, if, as he says, you can get the library.
Have fun!
Bob
