∞ generated and posted on 2016.01.12 ∞
Potential to be motivate antibody production.
Antigenic substances, antigens, are predominantly protein but also includes various complex carbohydrates such as the lipopolysaccharide associated with Gram-negative bacteria. Antigenic substances also generally must be foreign to the bodies of the vertebrate animals that produce the immune response, though this criteria is not true in the case of autoimmune responses.
The term antigen actually is broader than just describing the motivation of antibody production since the immunity mediated by cytotoxic T lymphocytes as well as the foreign substances that activate helper T cells both are antigens that stimulate adaptive immunity by means that do not directly (or at all) involve antibody production.