During the last two decades, it has been shown by a great number of morphological, clinical, and experimental investigations that the humoral antibodies are formed by plasma cells. Plasma cells are immobile connective tissue cells which are formed in the medullary cords of lymph nodes, the red pulp of the spleen, the bone marrow, and in the adventitia of small blood vessels.
The theory of the plasmacellular antibody formation is based on these clinical and experimental observations: (1) Correlation of hypergammaglobulinemia in the blood serum and proliferation of plasma cells in the tissue in various diseases of men and animals. (2) Correlation of antibody concentration in the blood serum and plasma cell proliferation in hyperimmunized experimental animals. (3) Demonstration of antibody formation in plasma cells by in vitro experiments and extraction of γ-globulin from plasma cells. (4) Detection of antibodies in plasma cells with the fluorescent antibody technique.
Macrophages and lymphocytos also play a role in antibody formation. While it is the function of the macrophages to transform corpuscular antigen into soluble immunogenic antigen, the lymphocytes play the role of a co-factor. In newborns the thymus lymphocytes transmit substances which are necessary for the development and function of the antibody producing system.
The complicated problems of globulin synthesis in the antibody producing cell are explained in the light of the genetic theory of antibody formation advanced by Ehrich.
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