Dear,
Does a specific antigen induce expression of specific immunoglobulin or Ig part, such as specific chain variant? That is, if I find a specific Ig, can I suppose this could be induced by certain antigen? Thanks.
Dan
There is increasing evidence at the individual epitope level B cell responses can be highly restricted. At whole antigen level (many epitopes) it is not so easy to see that as there are many overlapping uses of the same V regions. Inititally seen with haptens (small individual epitopes) has been seen with capsular polysaccharide of H influes B, CMV, SARS, others. Check out a recent paper by Patrick Wilson on stereotypical B cell responses it captures some of this.
I think it is epitope specific not pathogen specific but epitopes may be pathogen specific or some group specific.
I agree with the previous answers. Most immunoglobulin are targeting specific antigen/epitope on the pathogen
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