How does attaching a hapten to a carrier trigger production of anti-hapten antibodies?

Question

I need some detail here. I understand that it makes the thing bigger and thus more likely to actually get noticed by the immune system, but this is a question from an old exam that's supposed to take 20 minutes to answer, so there has to be more to it.

Throw me a link if you've got one.

Answer 1

My answer is mostly "bigger", sorry.  What's recognized is the big combination of hapten and carrier, just as carrier alone would be recognized.  Once you purify anti-hapten antibodies away from of anti-carrier antibodies, you're good.

Sometimes (usually) when we have to write questions that take 20 minutes to answer, they take an hours. Once in a while, we have to mess up in the other direction.

Alternatively, maybe someone will throw you a link with more detail.