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===Immunoglobulin Class Switching===
 
===Immunoglobulin Class Switching===
* Different classes of antibody differ from each other in size, charge, amino acid composition, associated carbohydrate and function. Immunoglobulin heavy and light chains are encoded by separate genes with the first 300 bases of each gene encoding the variable part of each protein chain. The combination of the VH and VL contribute to the antigenic specificity and any individual has the capability of producing over 100 million different antibody specificities. The rest of the antibody gene encodes all the constant domains. There are four different types of heavy chain constant domains - μ, γ, ε, α. Different heavy chains are associated with different classes of antibody;
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Different classes of antibody differ from each other in size, charge, amino acid composition, associated carbohydrate and function. Immunoglobulin heavy and light chains are encoded by separate genes with the first 300 bases of each gene encoding the variable part of each protein chain. The combination of the VH and VL contribute to the antigenic specificity and any individual has the capability of producing over 100 million different antibody specificities. The rest of the antibody gene encodes all the constant domains. There are four different types of heavy chain constant domains - μ, γ, ε, α. Different heavy chains are associated with different classes of antibody;
 
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* '''&mu; chain - [[IgM]] '''
 
* '''&mu; chain - [[IgM]] '''
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