Immunoelectrophoretic Patterns of C-Reactive Protein in Serum and In Ascitic Fluid from Patients with Cancer. ∗

Abstract

Summary

Three immunoelectrophoretic types of C-reactive protein, β, γ, and 2H, have been observed in serum from patients with neoplastic and non-neoplastic diseases. Gel diffusion precipitin analysis disclosed no evidence of antigenic heterogeneity. The nature of the electrophoretic dissimilarity was studied by means of dilution, defatting with chloroform, by heating and by enzymatic digestion of CRP in sera and of partially purified CRP recovered from carcinomatous ascitic fluid. The reported studies indicate that C-reactive protein consists of two proteins with different electrophoretic mobilities but with identical antigenicity. The two proteins differ in their susceptibilities to proteolytic enzymes.