The human body is capable of synthesising more than a million different kinds of immunoglobulin molecules, each capable of reacting with a different antigen, but all of them appear to share the same fundamental quaternary (globular) structure. Typically, an immunoglobulin molecule is a Y-shaped heteromer and composed of two identical heavy (H) polypeptide chains and two smaller identical light (L) [...]
There are five major immunoglobulin (Ig) classes namely: 1. IgG 2. IgA 3. IgD 4. IgM 5. IgE. Class # 1. IgG: (a) It constitutes 75% of the total serum immunoglobulin in human. (b) During the secondary immune response, it is the major Ig to be synthesized. Hence, it plays a vital role in the defense against infection. (c) It [...]
In this article we will discuss about the classification of immunoglobulin. 1. Isotypes: Based on the structure and sequence of their heavy-chain, constant regions, immunoglobulins are divided into five major groups called as classes which are again further subdivided into subclasses. In human, for example, there are five classes of immunoglobulins (commonly called GADME) viz., IgG, IgA, IgD, IgM [...]