摘要：

Knowledge concerning the immune response of invertebrates is relatively obscure when compared to vertebrates. Many authors believe that invertebrates cannot achieve specific reactions characteristic of acquired immunity. According to the approaches of Ehrlich (1900), Jerne (1955), and Burnet (1959), adaptive immunity requires the presence of leukocytes which recognize various antigenic structural patterns. The molecular basis of this recognition is the production of cell-bound receptors which combine specifically with antigens. Each immunocyte carries only one receptor pattern, and one type of injected antigen must select from among the different cells those which have appropriate receptors. Cell division is stimulated and produces leukocytes which exhibit specific immunity against a stimulating antigen. Studies of protein uptake by cells of invertebrates, and especially by echinoderm coelomocytes (Hilgard and Phillips, 1968; Hilgard et al ., this symposium) have argued strongly that some of these cells possess specific receptor molecules. However, according to Burnet (1968) and Hilgard (1970), contact with antigen may not produce any permanent proliferation in echinoderm coelomocyte populations which synthesize receptors.

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