Letter from Otto Bier, Instituto Biologico (Brazil) to Michael Heidelberger

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)