95 immunoglobulin superfamily

I

Immunoelectrophoresis This laboratory technique is a combination of electrophoresis and immunodiffusion in agar or agarose gel. Using immunoelectrophoresis techniques, it is possible to determine the presence and amount (concentration) of antigens substantially faster than by a simple immunodiffusion method. Depending on technique, immunoelectropho-resis can be subdivided into 5 groups: classical immunoelectrophoresis according to Grabar and Williams (used especially for confirming multiple myeloma immunoglobulins), rocket immunoelectrophoresis, counterimmunoelec-trophoresis, two-dimensional immunoelec-trophoresis and immunofixation.

Immunofixation An immunoelectropho-resis method in which the separated antigens are detected directly in the gel on the basis of their precipitation with a specific antibody.

Immunofluorescence A property of cer-tain molecules to absorb light or other form of energy and show it in the form of a photon (light with longer wave-length than that of absorbed light). It is used in immunohis-tochemistry and immunoassay techniques. Using the antibodies labelled by an immuno-fluorescent stain it is possible to localise the applicable antigens in histological slides, or study the fluorescent immune complexes through a fluorescent microscope. The same principle is also applied in sensitive fluores-cent immunoassays (immunoassay, fluores-cent).

Immunogenetics A branch of science rep-resenting the boundary between immunolo-gy and genetics and dealing with the genetic analysis of executive and regulatory mole-cules of the immune system (especially anti-gens of the major histocompatibility complex, immunoglobulins, cytokines and compo-nents and factors of complement), as well as the genetic regulation of immune responses.

Immunoglobulin deficiency This can be induced by abnormal function of B-lympho-cytes or both B- and T-lymphocytes. Affected individuals manifest with a low level of im-

munoglobulins (hypogammaglobulinemia), abnormal function of immunoglobulins (gammopathy), hypercatabolism (excessively rapid degradation of the immunoglobulin molecules), excessive loss (upon heavy haem-orrhage) or damage to lymphocytes (for ex-ample by drugs or lymphocytotrophic virus-es). These can all lead to diseases in which the pathogenesis is a decreased immunity against most infectious agents. Subsequent severe re-current infections are usually resistant to conventional antibiotic treatment. Primary immunoglobulin deficiencies include agam-maglobulinaemia and selective deficiency of IgA, or also other immunoglobulin classes and subclasses, severe combined immunode-ficiency and hereditary ataxia-telangiectasia.

Immunoglobulin, normal human In-travenously applicable immunoglobulin prep-aration made from the blood plasma of at least 1,000 healthy donors. It contains pre-dominantly IgG and is used for substitution treatment (in deficiencies of antibody pro-duction), for prophylaxis and the treatment of certain infectious and auto-immune disor-ders (immunoglobulins, therapeutic prepara-tions).

Immunoglobulin superfamily A com-plex of glycoprotein molecules coded for by genes with an evolutional homology, i.e. a common predecessor. The members of the immunoglobulin superfamily have several common sections of polypeptide chains in their molecules, with the same stereometric structure as the immunoglobulin chains (im-munoglobulin domains). There are three types of stereometrically homologous do-mains identified among the members of the Ig superfamily: the variable (V), the constant (C) and the H domain. Currently, there are more than 40 known members of this super-family whose basic functions are discrimina-tive (immunoglobulins, antigenic receptors on T-cells, antigens of class I and II of the ma-jor histocompatibility complex, differentia-tion antigens CD2, CD3, CD4, CD8 and re-ceptors for Fc domain of immunoglobulins – FcR), adhesive (connecting) or regulatory