Funded by NSFC, a research group composed of experts from Peking University, Chinese Academy of Medical Sciences, Zhejiang University and Central Southern University has demonstrated that non-immunocytes could secret immunoglobulin (Ig), breaking the traditional immunologic theory. Some of the results will be soon published in the international authoritative journal.

Immunoglobulins are very important immunological molecules secreted by immunocytes after stimulated by antigens, which only come from B-lymphocytes and plasma cells. The immune responses of immunoglobulins are composed of complement and cell-mediated immunities. All of this has been considered as a well-known and unsuspicious classic immunologic theory, even a little attempt to make correction on it would not be acceptable. However, with a large amount of experimental data the Chinese scientists introduced a breakthrough to the theory. They found that 1) functional gene rearrangement of immunoglobulins could be found in tumor cells and some normal epithelial cells and these cells could secrete immunoglobulins, besides B cells and plasma cells; 2) if tumor cells expressing immunoglobulins could be inhibited on the gene and protein levels, or activities of these immunoglobulins could be blocked, the proliferative capacity of tumor cells will decreased significantly and apoptosis will increased significantly; having been injected into tumors of animals, anti-IgG antibodies could inhibit tumor cells' growth and induce apoptosis obviously; 3) further research showed that neither structure of immonoglobulins nor its mechanism of gene expressing control is the same as B-lymphocytes.

According to the researchers from the group, the findings will redefine the resources of immunoglobulins, and will be helpful to manifest the unknown important roles of immunoglobulins physiologically and pathologically. At same time, it will exert great influence on the biological studies of neoplasm occurrence and improvement, and biological therapy of neoplasm.