French D L, Laskov R, Scharff M D
Department of Cell Biology, Albert Einstein College of Medicine, Bronx, NY 10461.
Science. 1989 Jun 9;244(4909):1152-7. doi: 10.1126/science.2658060.
The immune system is capable of establishing an enormous repertoire of antibodies before its first contact with antigen. Most antibodies that express germ-line sequences are of relatively low affinity. Once antigen enters the system, it stimulates a somatic mutational mechanism that generates antibodies of higher affinity and selects for the expression of those antibodies to produce a more effective immune response. The details of the mechanism and regulation of somatic hypermutation remain to be elucidated.
免疫系统在首次接触抗原之前就能产生种类繁多的抗体。大多数表达种系序列的抗体亲和力相对较低。一旦抗原进入系统，它就会刺激一种体细胞突变机制，产生亲和力更高的抗体，并选择表达这些抗体以产生更有效的免疫反应。体细胞超突变的机制和调控细节仍有待阐明。
