Abstract
Summary
Specific heterophile antibody prepared by adsorption to beef erythrocytes and elution with diethyl ether was further characterized. When tested by cellulose acetate membrane electrophoresis the purified preparation produced one band in the slow gamma region. Whereas the whole serum and the non-heterophile antibody IgM fractions from 4 patients with infectious mononucleosis possessed both kappa and lambda types of the L chain, the heterophile antibody IgM from these patients contained only the lambda type. In addition, the IgM of the heterophile and non-heterophile fractions of such patients'sera showed a line of partial identity when tested by immunodiffusion against anti-heterophile antibody rabbit serum. There was no significant difference in the degree of reduction of the sheep hemagglutinin titer of sera from 10 patients with infectious mononucleosis by this anti-heterophile antibody rabbit serum. Although no antigenic heterogeneity among heterophile antibodies in sera obtained from different patients was demonstrable, the results indicate that heterophile antibodies are specific macroglobulins which differ from the other macroglobulins found in sera of patients with infectious mononucleosis.
Get full access to this article
View all access options for this article.