Regulation of synthesis of immunoglobulins

Abstract

Turnover studies using radioiodinated purified immunoglobulin molecules have been used to define the metabolic parameters of the different classes of immunoglobulins in normal man and to define the physiological factors regulating immunoglobulin catabolism and transport¹. In addition, as we have emphasised in previous Congresses, such studies have lead to the development of new insights into the pathophysiology of abnormalities of immunoglobulin levels and have led to the discovery of new classes of immunodeficiency disease associated with short survivals of immunoglobulin molecules². Such turnover studies, however, are not of major value in the definition of the complex pathways of cellular differentiation and biosynthesis which are required for the normal immune response and for immunoglobulin biosynthesis, nor are they of value in defining the precise defects in these events that occur in patients with the different immunodeficiency diseases. We have, therefore, developed an entirely different technique to study the factors controlling immunoglobulin synthesis and secretion by lymphocytes and their daughter cells. These studies have been directed towards defining the physiological control mechanisms that regulate immunoglobulin synthesis and toward developing new insights into the nature of the defects of immunoglobulin synthesis and secretion that occur in patients with the primary immunodeficiency diseases or with the neoplastic diseases affecting lymphocytes and plasma cells.