kiny
Well-known member
- Joined
- Apr 28, 2011
- Messages
- 3,463
Was in discussion since it came up and someone explained it, I didn't know and I'll make a story about it.
Mothers tend to kiss their babies, everyone has seen it happen, often on their face or other places, it's because they love their baby but it has a more specific reason that's instinctive, animals do this too. Animals take this one step further and tend to kiss / lick their babies all over.
some background info:
Humans have billions of B cells in them, but that's still too little to mount a decent antibody response to an invader, so B cells float around with an antigen binding site on the outside fishing for an antigen, When the B cells encounters an antigen it splits in two, and those two B cells split into 4, 8, 16 etc and you get a rapid expansion of the correct B cells, they become plasma cells and they will pump out thousands of antibodies in seconds. Why doesn't the body just have enough B cells from the start? Well because there's no reason to, as long as you have enough of each B cell floating around, they will keep looking, and when the right B cell binds to the right antigen you get a rapid expansion of the right B cells, the immune system is very smart and only creates what it needs at any given time, it doesn't create B cells just for the heck of it, it will create them on a need basis.
When mothers lactate for the baby, the plasma B cells from the immune system, the ones that can create the antibodies, migrate to the breasts. The plasma cells will produce antibodies, they will migrate into the milk and the baby drinks the milks and the breast becomes a producer of antibodies for him, the antibodies will enter with the milk and the baby will now have antibodies in his mouth and gastro tract.
So where does the kissing fit into this.
Like was said in the background info, even though people have billions of B cells, to get those huge numbers of antibodies you need lots of B cells. Every B cells can pump out a few thousands of antibodies in a single second, but to get enough you want many many B cells pumping out thousands of antibodies each second. To get the B cell to split and multiply into memory and plasma B cells you need the right antigen. A mother might produce antibody A, B, C, but maybe the baby needs antibody D, as long as the mother doesn't have antigen D in her she will not produce antibodies for antigen D. But the baby likely has many of the invaders he needs antibodies for on his skin / lips, all around him, when the mother kisses the baby she ingests those antigens from the baby, they come into contact with her tonsils in the back of her mouth, tonsils being part of the immune system, the lymphatic system. B cells see those antigens, they move to her breast and they start producing tons of antibodies, the baby drinks milk again, ingests all the antibodies and is now protected. And that's why mothers kiss their babies.
Mothers tend to kiss their babies, everyone has seen it happen, often on their face or other places, it's because they love their baby but it has a more specific reason that's instinctive, animals do this too. Animals take this one step further and tend to kiss / lick their babies all over.
some background info:
Humans have billions of B cells in them, but that's still too little to mount a decent antibody response to an invader, so B cells float around with an antigen binding site on the outside fishing for an antigen, When the B cells encounters an antigen it splits in two, and those two B cells split into 4, 8, 16 etc and you get a rapid expansion of the correct B cells, they become plasma cells and they will pump out thousands of antibodies in seconds. Why doesn't the body just have enough B cells from the start? Well because there's no reason to, as long as you have enough of each B cell floating around, they will keep looking, and when the right B cell binds to the right antigen you get a rapid expansion of the right B cells, the immune system is very smart and only creates what it needs at any given time, it doesn't create B cells just for the heck of it, it will create them on a need basis.
When mothers lactate for the baby, the plasma B cells from the immune system, the ones that can create the antibodies, migrate to the breasts. The plasma cells will produce antibodies, they will migrate into the milk and the baby drinks the milks and the breast becomes a producer of antibodies for him, the antibodies will enter with the milk and the baby will now have antibodies in his mouth and gastro tract.
So where does the kissing fit into this.
Like was said in the background info, even though people have billions of B cells, to get those huge numbers of antibodies you need lots of B cells. Every B cells can pump out a few thousands of antibodies in a single second, but to get enough you want many many B cells pumping out thousands of antibodies each second. To get the B cell to split and multiply into memory and plasma B cells you need the right antigen. A mother might produce antibody A, B, C, but maybe the baby needs antibody D, as long as the mother doesn't have antigen D in her she will not produce antibodies for antigen D. But the baby likely has many of the invaders he needs antibodies for on his skin / lips, all around him, when the mother kisses the baby she ingests those antigens from the baby, they come into contact with her tonsils in the back of her mouth, tonsils being part of the immune system, the lymphatic system. B cells see those antigens, they move to her breast and they start producing tons of antibodies, the baby drinks milk again, ingests all the antibodies and is now protected. And that's why mothers kiss their babies.
Last edited:
