> As far as "immunity" to bee stings, the reaction to a sting is an immune reaction.  So lack of reaction is lack of immune reaction, not "immunity."

Actually, it is immunity. Specifically, lack of an "apparent" reaction is the result of a competent immune response against the venom.

A naïve reaction to a bee sting is driven by IgE, which is intense, histamine-associated, and allergic in type. Once the body has been exposed to sufficient venom to develop type-specific antibodies--IgG--the response to a sting is driven by these antibodies, and can appear to be a "nonreaction" unless you are stung so many times in a short interval that the amount of venom overrides the amount of available IgG to neutralize it, and then you will see swelling, etc. Even then, if the antigen is well recognized by the body, a tolerance reaction will be driven by specific T-regulatory cells (called Tregs) so that the response will not be shifted into hyperdrive by responding macrophages.

Personally, I have an anecdotal story of one long-time beekeeper who suddenly developed an intense reaction to bee stings. I suspect it is the result of an aging immune system and the failure of the Tregs to abort this intense response, kind of like how autoimmunity is believed to develop. I gave the following article a quick glance (it's open access) and it appears to explain the Treg effect. [https://www.cell.com/cell/fulltext/S0092-8674(08)00624-7?_returnURL=https%3A%2F%2Flinkinghub.elsevier.com%2Fretrieve%2Fpii%2FS0092867408006247%3Fshowall%3Dtrue]

Any immunologists on the board should obviously chime in here.

S

Skillman, NJ

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