Imunologi dan Serologi

ANTIGEN & IMMUNOGEN

Rustiana Tasya A.

DIV TEKNOLOGI LABORATORIUM MEDIK

STIKES BINAWAN
 Introduction
 Immune response :
 Innateimmune response
 Adaptive immune response

 Adaptive immune responses :

 Ariseas a result of exposure to foreign stimuli
 Specific responses

 Consist of cellular immune response & humoral

immune response
 Definitions

Antigen : any agent capable of binding specifically

to components of immune response  TCR &
antibody

Immunogen : any agent capable inducing an

immune response

All immunogens are antigens, but not all antigen

are immunogens
 What makes antigens are
immunogens?
 Foreignness
 High molecular weight
 Chemical complexity
 Ability to process & presented by MHC molecules
 Foreignness
 The immune system is normally able to
distinguish between self and nonself,
 Substances recognized as nonself are
immunogenic.
 The more distant taxonomically the source of the
immunogen is from the host, the better it is as a
stimulus.
 However, autoantibodies, or antibodies to
selfantigens,
 High Molecular Weight
 at least 10,000 Daltons to be recognized by the
immune system, and the best : 100,000 daltons.1,2
 the greater the molecular weight, the more
potent the molecule is as an immunogen.
 Chemical complexity
 Proteins and polysaccharides are the best
immunogens.
 Carbohydrates are somewhat less immunogenic
than protein  most often occur in the form of
glycolipids or glycoproteins
 Pure nucleic acids and lipids are not immunogenic
by themselves
Ability to process & presented by MHC
molecules
 a substance to elicit an immune response, it must
be subject to antigen processing  enzymatic
digestion + complexed to MHC molecules 
ymphocytes
 If a macromolecule can’t be degraded and
presented with MHC molecules, then it would be
a poor immunogen
 Epitope
 Epitopes are molecular shapes or configurations
that are recognized by B or T cells
 Hapten
too small to be recognized by themselves,
but if they are complexed to larger molecules,
they are then able to stimulate a response
RELATIONSHIP OF ANTIGENS TO THE
HOST
 Autoantigens : antigens that belong to the host
 Alloantigens : antigens from other member of
host’s species
 Heteroantigens : antigens from other species
 Heterophile antigens : antigens from other species
but identical or closely related to alloantigens.
 ADJUVANTS
 is a substance administered with an immunogen
that increases the immune response.
 It acts by producing a local inflammatory
response that attracts a large number of immune
system cells to the injection site
 e.g : aluminium salt, BCG.