When I was 19, I was a model for the “dress and suit” class at Rud Vocational School. The students had to learn how to sew a suit. I chose bottle green wool for a jacket with rounded edges and a pleated skirt. It was based on a standard pattern, and I tried on the suit several times along the way to ensure it would fit my body perfectly. This is exactly the case with our antibodies as well.
Continue readingTag Archives: B cells
Reply
Dulce de leche “Hapå”
Although I am an omnivore, I must have dairy butter on my morning sandwich, otherwise I lose my appetite. Similarly, the Norwegian dulce de leche type spread “Hapå” is according the Nestlé advertisment an effective means to get the kids to eat their sandwiches.
The macrophages behave a bit in the same way. They eat everything, but it helps a lot if a bacterium is covered with “Hapå”. It then goes down a lot faster.
The lottery
I still remember the disappointment in 2002 when it became clear that humans had no more than 25,000 genes, about as many genes as a mouse! And with this very limited number of genes, we shall in addition to everything else, also be ready to defend ourselves against any possible unknown intruder?