A GEOMETRICAL STUDY OF B-CELL STIMULATION AND HUMORAL IMMUNE RESPONSE

Publisher Summary This chapter presents a geometrical study of B-cell stimulation and humoral immune response. The immune response to the presence of a foreign substance, called an antigen, consists of many complex biochemical interactions involving several cell types. The response itself is usually divided into two parts: the humoral (antibody) response and the cell-mediated response. The chapter presents a model of the humoral response to a challenge of nonreplicating antigen. The humoral response varies between species and even individuals within a species. The response also depends on the particular antigen studied. The chapter presents a very flexible model that can easily be adopted to the species and antigen under study and modified as new information concerning the response is discovered. The form of the model also provides a possible tool for identifying some of the complex interactions, suggesting how they interact by studying the geometry of the entire interaction.