PMID: 6163661Apr 1, 1981Paper

Theoretical considerations of the role of antigen structure in B cell activation

Federation Proceedings
A S Perelson, F W Wiegel

Abstract

Thymus-independent antigens generally are polymeric molecules with repeating arrays of antigenic determinants. Immunological studies of the activity of haptenated thymus-independent antigens have shown that small changes in hapten density can transform a polymeric antigen from nonimmunogenic to immunogenic, and from immunogenic to tolerogenic. In this paper we compute the equilibrium configuration of a linear flexible, haptenated polymer absorbed to a B cell surface, and correlate configurational features of the molecule with its immunological functioning. A polymeric molecule bound to a cell generally will not lie entirely on the surface; rather there will be sections that form loops extending into solution, separated by tightly bound sections, or trains. Trains link antibody receptors on the B cell surface in a fashion that restricts their mobility. Thus trains cause restrictive cross-linking. Our computations show that there is a critical hapten density below which the polymer does not bind to the surface. At hapten densities slightly above the critical density, the polymer binds weakly to the surface with a configuration dominated by a few, rather long loops. These loops cross-link receptors, but do so without bringing the ...Continue Reading

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