title: Biliglobulin: a new look at IgA.
abstract: The teaching of Hippocrates and Galen ensured that physicians have always had a lively appreciation of the importance of bile, but somehow immunologists never got the message and hitherto they have paid it scant attention. Here Joe Hall and Liz Andrew discuss recent discoveries in Belgium and Britain which have shown that bile is a rich source of the secretory immunoglobulin IgA because the hepatocytes rapidly and actively transport this immunoglobulin from blood to bile. Not only are these findings important for understanding diseases involving the liver, the gut, immune complexes and tolerance to dietary antigens, but, in addition, they have provided research workers with an easy way of investigating secretory antibodies in small laboratory animals.
authors.affiliation: Block X, Institute of Cancer Research, Department of Tumour Immunology, Clifton Avenue, Sutton, Surrey, UK.
authors.forename: J G
authors.initials: JG
authors.lastname: Hall
authors.forename: E
authors.initials: E
authors.lastname: Andrew