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Heterogeneity among Rheumatoid Factors for Complement Fixation¹

From the Section of Arthritis-Connective Tissue Diseases, Department of Medicine and the Veterans' Administration Research Hospital, Northwestern University Medical Center, Chicago, Illinois 60611

Abstract

Complement fixation by rheumatoid factor (RF) was found to vary among 36 individual sera in that, after the quantity of RF had been equalized, those sera with high original RF agglutination titers fixed severalfold the amount of complement than did other sera with low original RF agglutination titers. Thus, not only did high agglutination sera have a greater quantity of RF but also fixed more complement per unit concentration of RF. This phenomenon could not be attributed to differences in the proportion of the various immunoglobulin classes within the RF preparation. When tested on an equal weight basis the IgM-RF fraction paralleled the total mixture of immunoglobulin classes in its ability to fix complement. IgG-RF could not be studied as an isolated fraction due to self-aggregation, but indirect evidence suggested complement-fixing activity. Precipitation of aggregated IgG antigen by RF antibody was greater with strong complement-fixing preparations only in large antigen excess. Since high titered RF sera are associated with vasculitis and other manifestations of severe rheumatoid disease, these data lend support to the view that certain types of RF may act to promote complement dependent inflammation induced by immune complexes.

Footnotes

¹ This work was supported by United States Public Health Service Grants AM-11513 and AM-05069 and The Arthritis Foundation, Illinois Chapter, and Arthritis Foundation Clinical Research Center.