In article <opshw5p7qccx8htv at pc-arnt-ove>, Arnt-Ove Hovden
<URL:mailto:Arnt-Ove.Hovden at student.uib.no> wrote:
> Hi!
>> I was wondering about the serum immunglobulin levels in mice. How much
> (µg/ml)immunglobulin are there? How do that distribute on the
> different Ig classes and IgG subclasses? How high would an specific
> response go (e.g. how many % of total IgG specific to a virus)? I
> have trouble finding this on the net and so far I haven't come acoss
> any good textbooks either.
>> I hope somebody might have some answers or links to good internet sites
>> :)
> Arnt
>>
Interesting questions. I don't intend to give you answers because I
think it pays to think about these issues more deeply than simply being
given all the facts and figures straight off.
Take a look at papers by Sally Ward on FcRn, she looked at mouse IgG
subclass concentrations in different strains of mice and determined the
dependency on FcRn
Try the new Google search engine
<URL:http://www.scholar.google.com/scholar?q=Sally+Ward&ie=UTF-8&oe=UTF-8&hl=en&btnG=Search>
Also think of the following facts and do some guestimating for yourself
Avagadro's number (approx 6x10^23)
Mr of IgG (approx 150,000)
Plasma Ig concentration (between 1 and 10 mg/ml)
Affinities of IgG antibodies (Kd often in the range of micromolar to
nanomolar)
Ask yourself how many different specificities could achieve a
concentration of antibody sufficient to give 50% saturation for the
above ranges of values?
Mike <URL:http://www.path.cam.ac.uk/~mrc7/>
--
M.R. Clark, PhD. Division of Immunology
Cambridge University, Dept. Pathology
Tennis Court Rd., Cambridge CB2 1QP
Tel.+44 1223 333705 Fax.+44 1223 333875
