Letter from Otto Bier, Instituto Biologico (Brazil) to Michael Heidelberger
- Contributor(s):
- Bier, Otto Instituto Biologico Heidelberger, Michael
- Publication:
- Produced: 26 May 1942
- Language(s):
- English
- Format:
- Text
- Subject(s):
- Complement System Proteins
- Genre(s):
- Archival Materials Letters (correspondence)
- Abstract:
- Otto Bier recounted in this letter his return to Brazil from a year in Heidelberger's laboratory, where he had studied complement, a complex, essential component of host defense mechanisms against invading organisms. At the time, the term referred to the heat-sensitive factors in serum that trigger cytolysis, the dissolution of antibody-coated cells. Today, complement refers to a functionally related system of at least twenty different serum proteins that play a key role not just in cytolysis, but in other immune responses, including phagocytosis, the engulfing of foreign matter by immune cells, and anaphylaxis, a form of hypersensitivity reaction to a specific antigen with often life-threatening consequences. Heidelberger was one of the founders of the study of complement by showing that it was a group of chemical substances related to one another through enzymatic reactions.
- Copyright:
- This item may be under copyright protection; contact the copyright owner for permission before re-use.
- Extent:
- 2 pages
- NLM Unique ID:
- 101584940X68 (See in Profiles in Science)
- Profiles in Science ID:
- DHBBFH
- Permanent Link:
- http://resource.nlm.nih.gov/101584940X68
- Archival Collection:
- The Michael Heidelberger Papers (Profiles in Science)