Same as heterophil; an antibody that reacts with antigens from a different species.
From Greek hetero- (different) + -phile (lover). An alternative spelling of heterophil, both terms emerged from immunological research in the early 1900s.
Heterophile is just another name for heterophil, and these antibodies were key to developing early diagnostic tests—the heterophile antibody response is what made testing easier long before modern blood tests!
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