What is an antibody M?
Antibly M is another name for immunoglobulin M (IgM). It is an antibody found in B cells, one of the cells that play a major role in the human immune system. When a foreign body or antigen infiltrates the body, an antibody M is the first antibody to appear.
Antibodies help the immune system identify possible hazards such as bacteria or viruses. Although most antibodies have a similar basic structure, each type has a significant formation of amino acids. The unique configuration of the tip corresponds to a similar formation of a particular antigen. If the antibody locks with its specific antigen, the body is warned of the presence of a foreign body, which caused the immune system to move to action.
The antibody M is useful in medicine because it can bind to many different antigens, even those that have never appeared in the body before. Usually, an antibody M appears in the early stage of almost every infection. Doctors can take the patient's blood samples into the antilantal test testKU M, therefore confirms the infection, even if there are no other symptoms.
Another interesting feature of antibody M is that it cannot cross the wall of human placenta. This feature is useful for doctors who monitor the fetal growth in the womb or the child after his birth. If the fluid sample from the womb is considered to be positive for the antibody M, it means that the fetus has an infection. The ability to know the condition of the child before birth is the key to healthy work and childbirth.
When there is too much antibody in the body, it is known as Hyper IgM syndrome. It is a rare genetic condition that can seriously disrupt the immune system. When a person has a syndrome, his body produces too many copies of antibodies M, many of which have poor quality. Antibodies do not work properly, so the person is more susceptible to infection as an autoimmune disorder. Syndrome could also make a person more likely to be more likely to develop cancer in an earlym age.
Research on antibodies began in 1890, but it took almost 100 years to identify specific antibodies. During the sixties, the antibody was one of the first honored as unique, along with the antibody G. In 1972, Rodney Porter and Gerald Edelman were awarded the Nobel Prize for Physiology or Medicine to discover the chemical structure of antibodies.