浙江大学医学免疫学名词解释

Immune response: the response made by the host to defend itself against the introduction of foreign substances.

Antigen: An antigen is any agent capable of binding specifically to components of immune system, such as BCR and soluble antibodies

Immunogen - A substance that induces a specific immune response.

(All immunogens are antigens, but not all antigens are immunogens)

Hapten：A hapten is a small molecule which could never induce an immune response when administered by themselves, but which can when attached to a large carrier such as a protein. Haptens have the property of antigencity but not immunogenicity.

Antigenicity: The ability of a compound to bind with antibodies or cells of the immune system. This binding is highly specific.

Epitope: The portion of the antigen that binds specifically with the binding site of an antibody or a receptor on a lymphocyte. Epitopes determine the specificity of different antigens.

Adjuvants: A substance that when mixed with an immunogen, enhances the immune response against the immunogen.

Complement：A group of serum proteins involved in the control of inflammation, the activation of phagocytes and the lytic attack on cell membranes. It belongs to the innate immune system, and can be recruited and brought into action by the adaptive immune system.

MHC：A cluster of genes on chromosome 6 in humans, encoding cell surface molecules that are polymorphic and that code for antigens which lead to rapid graft rejection between members of a single species which differ at these loci. They play an important role in the immune response, autoimmunity, and reproductive success.

Cytokine (CK): Small soluble proteins that mediate immune and inflammatory reactions and are responsible for communications between leukocytes and other cells.

Cytokine storm: Under certain circumstances (e.g. septic shock), large amounts of CKs (such as TNF) are produced, they may be active distant from their site of secretion.

Leukocyte differentiation antigens: Cell surface molecules which may appear on or disappear from the cell membrane of leukocytes in the different stages of differentiation and activation. They can also be found on other cells.

Cluster of differentiation (CD): Cell surface molecules can be recognized by particular monoclonal antibodies. All of the monoclonal antibodies that react with a particular membrane molecule are grouped together as a cluster of differentiation

Cell adhesion molecules, CAM: A group of proteins involved in adhesion of cell to cell or cell to extracellular matrix (ECM), such as ICAM-1, ICAM-2, ICAM-3, VCAM-1 and PECAM etc.