Answers are grounded in this paper and cite their sources.
Whereas it seems well established that antibody production is due to monospecific effector cells, the transmission mechanism from individual antigenic determinants to individual antibody producing cells and their production units is not clearly understood. Immunochemical work on the specificity of antigen in the course of the immune response is difficult to reconcile with a simple linear transmission. Phenomena like the hapten-carrier effect (see below), antigenic competition (Adler, 1964), original antigenic sin (cf. Fazekas de St. Groth and Webster, 1966) and tolerance specificity as distinct from antibody specificity (Austin and Nossal, 1966), all suggest that the process of immune initiation is a complex one.
No takes yet. Share an insight, caveat, or question.
Rajewsky et al. (1967) studied this question.
Synapse has enriched 5 related papers. Consider them for comparative context: