HOME HELP FEEDBACK SUBSCRIPTIONS ARCHIVE SEARCH TABLE OF CONTENTS		QUICK SEARCH:   [advanced] Author: Keyword(s): Year:  Vol:  Page:

This Article Full Text (PDF) Alert me when this article is cited Alert me if a correction is posted Services Similar articles in this journal Alert me to new issues of the journal Download to citation manager Citing Articles Citing Articles via Google Scholar Google Scholar Articles by Manski, W. Articles by Malinowski, K. Search for Related Content PubMed Articles by Manski, W. Articles by Malinowski, K.

The Distribution and Relative Immunogenicity of Calf -Crystallin Antigenic Determinants on Different Subunits¹

Departments of Microbiology and Ophthalmology, College of Physicians and Surgeons, Columbia University, New York

Abstract

In the native -crystallin molecule, 45.9% of all reactive antigenic determinants were found to be located on SH-containing subunits. Of these, the majority (35.3%) were reaggregation dependent, and 10.6% were reactive on monomeric subunits. By contrast, only 10.9% of all antigenic determinants were located on SH-free subunits, and the ratio of aggregation-dependent determinants (4.4%) to those of monomeric subunits (6.5%) was reversed compared to SH-containing subunits. Among all antigenic determinants reactive in native -crystallin, 44.1% were dependent on the presence of both types of subunits. These data indicate that the antigenic determinants requiring subunit interaction were formed from SH-containing and SH-free subunits in a ratio of 1:1. Direct analysis showed that in the -crystallin molecule, the ratio of these subunits is 2:1. The experiments indicate that some conformations of subunits in the native molecule persist in separated subunits. The relative immunogenicity of each type of antigenic determinant expressed as the ratio of the percentage of the determinant reactive in the native calf lens -crystallin to the percentage of corresponding antibodies induced by native -crystallin was found to be close to 1.

Footnotes

¹ This work was supported by United States Public Health Service Research Grant EY 00189.