Gamma globulin

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Gamma globulins, or Ig's, are a class of proteins in the blood, identified by their position after serum protein electrophoresis. The most significant gamma globulins are antibodies.

Gamma globulin injections are usually given in an attempt to temporarily boost a patient's immunity against disease. Injections are most commonly used on patients who have been exposed to hepatitis A or measles. Injections are also used to boost immunity in patients who lack the ability to produce gamma globulins because of an immune deficiency, such as X-linked agammaglobulinemia and hyper IgM syndrome. Such injections are less common in modern medical practice than they were previously, and injections of gamma globulin previously recommended for travelers have largely been replaced by the use of hepatitis A vaccine.

Gamma globulin infusions are also used to treat immunological diseases, such as immunological thrombocytopenia purpura (ITP), a disease in which the platelets are being attacked by antibodies, leading to seriously low platelet counts. Gamma globulin apparently causes the spleen to ignore the antibody-tagged platelets, thus allowing them to survive and function.

Another theory on how gamma globulin administration works in autoimmune disease is by overloading the mechanisms which degrade gamma globulins. Over loading the degradation mechanism causes the harmful gamma globulins to have a much shorter halflife in sera.

An excess is known as hypergammaglobulinemia.

A disease of gamma globulins is called a "gammopathy" (for example, in monoclonal gammopathy of undetermined significance.)