title: [Antibody diversity and network theory--a hypothesis].
abstract: The diversity of antibody specificities arises during the development of the immune system by recombination of genes and by spontaneous mutations and is not yet determined in the germ-cell, as earlier supposed. The network theory describes how antibody and lymphocyte populations are regulated recognizing each other by idiotopes. It is proposed that protection against autoaggression by an immune system with a genetically mostly uncontrolled high variability of specificities is based on anti-idiotypic antibodies which express autoantigen structures. There are suggestions that essential functions of the immune system consist not only in protection against microbes and immunological surveillance but also in regulatory effects on nonimmunological body-cell systems.
mesh_terms: D000906:Antibodies / Q000276:immunology; D000916:Antibody Diversity; D001323:Autoantibodies / Q000276:immunology; D006801:Humans; D008214:Lymphocytes / Q000276:immunology; D009154:Mutation; D011995:Recombination, Genetic; D013598:Systems Theory
chemical_list: D000906:Antibodies; D001323:Autoantibodies
vernacular_title: Antikörpervielfalt und Netzwerktheorie--eine Hypothese.