A modification of jerne's theory of antibody production using the concept of clonal selection

There are three current theoretical inter pretations of antibody production which, following Talmage (1957), may be referredto as the directtemplate theoryinwhich theantigenservesasa template against which the specific pat tern of the antibody is synthesized, the indirect template theory which postu lates a secondary template incorporated intothegenetic-synthetic processesof the antibody producing cells (Burnet, 1956), and the natural selection theory in which the antigen acts essentially by selection for excess production of natu ral antibody molecules of corresponding type (Jerne, 1955). The two latter theories were devised primarily to account for two sets of phe nomena for which the direct template theory seems quite irrelevant. The first is the absence of immunological re sponse to “¿ self― constituents and the related phenomena of immunological tolerance; thesecondistheevidencethat antibody production can continue in the absence of antigen. Some means for the recognition anddifferentiation ofpoten tially antigenic components of the body from foreign organic material must be provided in any acceptable formulation. In Burnet and Fenner's (1949) account, a positive recognition of “¿ self― material was ascribed to the presence of “¿ self markers― in all potentially antigenic macromolecules, and corresponding recognition units in the scavenger cells of the body. At the time it was regarded as inconceivable that a mechanism could exist which would recognise in positive fashion all foreign material and no at tempt was made to devise one, despite the fact that we have always recognised the clumsy character of the self-marker, self-recognition scheme. It is the great virtue of Jerne's hypoth esis that it provides an approach to this alternative method of recognising self from not self. There is no doubt about the presence in all mammalian or avian sera of a wide range of reactive globulins whichcan legitimately be called“¿ natu ral antibodies.― Jerne assumed that amongst these globulin molecules were all the possible patterns needed for spe cific immunological type reaction with any antigen, except for those patterns corresponding to body antigens which would be eliminated by in vivo absorp tion. When a foreign antigen enters the blood it unites, according to Jerne's scheme, with one of the corresponding natural antibody molecules. The com plex is taken up by a phagocytic cell in which the antigen plays no further part, but the antibody globulin provokes the Reprinted from The Australian Journal of Science 20 (3): 67-69, 1957.