Immune defense and repair systems in biologic medicine: clinical relevance of biological response modifiers in autoimmunity diagnosis, treatment, tests and interpretation part 2
Townsend Letter, Nov, 2009 by Russell Jaffe
Editor’s note: Written in 1987, this article is presented as a classic yet timely article for today’s health professional. This is the second part of three parts in this series.
Clinical Tests of Immune Function and Response.
Various clinical tests are currently in use for assessing an individual’s adverse response to environmental antigens. Antibody assays can be performed, most easily for immunoglobulin G (IgG). (44-46) This has the advantage of examining the immunologic memory of the person. Antibodies capable of inciting a delayed response can be of the IgA, IgM, or IgG class, as not all IgG antibodies induce symptomatic responses. (44-46)
Four subclasses of IgG have been identified. These subclasses have different biologic functions and vary independently in get rid of hemroids different clinical conditions. This makes clinical interpretation of total IgG antibodies against specific antigens a challenge. lgG1 and lgG3 fix complement most efficiently through their binding to C1q and bind to granulocytes. Counterbalance to lgG1 and lgG3 may be provided by lgG2 in some circumstances. Only lgG4 is cytophilic for mast cells