Medical Dictionary
variable region
noun
Medical Definition of VARIABLE REGION
: the part of the polypeptide chain of a light or heavy chain of an antibody that ends in a free amino group −NH2, that varies greatly in its sequence of amino acid residues from one antibody to another, and that probably determines the conformation of the combining site which confers the specificity of the antibody for a particular antigen—called also variable domain; compare constant region
Illustration of VARIABLE REGION
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