In theory, having a baby with someone with different immune proteins can lead to healthier offspring.

What is more, the bone marrow must continually replenish these immune proteins.

Intrinsic immune proteins, however, are specific both in virus recognition and their mechanism of viral attenuation.

Since the early 1980's, he has worked with another immune protein, TNF-alpha, which is involved in fighting infections.

These cells in turn produce an excess of immunoglobulin M, a class of sticky immune proteins whose presence makes the blood viscous.

Complement component 6 (C6 protein) in the complement cascade system of immune proteins (native immunity)

In addition, immunofluorescence may be used as a laboratory technique to tag cells with specific fluorophores using antibodies, immune proteins created by B lymphocytes.

Unlike adaptive and innate immunity effectors, intrinsic immune proteins are usually expressed at a constant level, allowing a viral infection to be halted quickly.

Dr. Lehrer is an author of a new report on this novel class of immune proteins that appeared in a recent issue of the journal Cell.

Consider the immune system, he said, which relies on a very limited number of genes for constructing the building blocks of immune cells and immune proteins.

The most likely mechanism is that stress causes an increase in an immune protein called interleukin-6, which is also released in response to cancer, infections, burns and other trauma.

Thus, the ELISPOT assay provides both qualitative (type of immune protein) and quantitative (number of responding cells) information.

But the scientists worried that in their experiments, the recombination gene was too inefficient and slow to explain how the body produces such a steady and dazzling variety of immune proteins.

APOBEC3G (Apolipoprotein editing complex 3 G) is another intrinsic immune protein which interferes with HIV infection.

The gene labors in tandem with another gene to cut and paste together pieces of DNA into a vast repertoire of immune proteins that can precisely target virtually any invader encountered.

That master gene was found to help stitch together different segments of genetic material into working antibodies and T-cell receptors, the two types of immune proteins that assault foreign microbes and other intruders.

At this secondary exposure, these crossreactive antibody molecules interact with aspects of innate immunity-soluble immune proteins called complement and innate immune cells called phagocytes-which inflames and destroys the transplanted tissue.

Researchers have found that females paired with males that lack diverse genes for a key immune protein are more likely to stray, and produce offspring with males that have a greater diversity of these genes.

When a part of the body becomes infected the immune system comes into play, rushing white blood cells and immune proteins to the scene of the infection in an attempt to inactivate or kill the invading organisms and to clear up the damage.

The new study throws light on the mystery: as many as 25 percent of kidneys that were thought to be matched by standard methods were found in fact to be partly incompatible when a new, more accurate means of typing the immune proteins was used.

Unlike adaptive and innate immunity, which must sense the infection to be turned on (and can in the case of adaptive immunity, take weeks to become effective) intrinsic immune proteins are constitutively expressed and ready to shut down infection immediately following viral entry.

Although monoclonal antibodies (immune proteins which can be selected to precisely bind to almost any target) have been around for decades, they were derived from mice and did not function particularly well when administered to humans, causing allergic reactions and being rapidly removed from circulation.

For nine weeks, they gave the children injections of the biologic drug Xolair, which blocks the immune protein IgE, an important chemical signal that causes specialized cells called mast cells to release a host of chemicals that cause swelling, itching, and other signs of an allergic reaction.