Interchain Disulfide Bridges Research Articles

Light chains of rabbit immunoglobulin: assignment to the kappa class.

Normal rabbit gamma globulin was reduced under conditions presumed to break only interchain disulfide bridges, and the reduiced product was then blocked with C(14)-iodoacetamide. The light chains were separated from the heavy chains and subjected to peptic digestion. Two radioactive peptides were recovered from the digest. The peptides are apparently overlapping and represent the carboxyterminuis. Comparison of this region in the rabbit light chains with the corresponding amino acid sequences in various mouse and human light chains indicates that the rabbit light chains are of the (K)-class.

Subclasses of human immunoglobulin a based on differences in the alpha polypeptide chains.

Antiserum from goats immunized with heavy polypeptide chains from a gammaA-type myeloma globulin was absorbed with serum from patients with selective absence of immunoglobulin A (gammaA). The resulting reagents could be used for the classification of 58 gammaA-myeloma proteins into two distinct antigenic types, respectively called subclasses He and Le. These differences were shown to be related to the heavy (alpha) polypeptide chains and independent of the integrity of interchain disulfide bridges. The gammaA-immunoglobulin from normal serum appears to consist, for the most part, of molecules with Le subclass specificity.