Skip to main content
NCBI home page
Annals of the Rheumatic Diseases logoLink to Annals of the Rheumatic Diseases
. 1976 Aug;35(4):314–320. doi: 10.1136/ard.35.4.314

Factors relating to circulating immune complexes in rheumatoid arthirits.

P J Roberts-Thomson, B L Hazleman, I G Barnett, I C MacLennan, A G Mowat
PMCID: PMC1007388  PMID: 970988

Abstract

Evidence has been presented suggesting that circulating immune complexes occur in over half of the sera of patients with rheumatoid arthritis. These IgG-containing complexes were small, eluting between IgG and IgM on gel filtration on Sepharose 6B and were not seen in the sera of healthy control subjects. These complexes were detected in the sera of both seronegative and seropositive patients and their quantity did not correlate with IgM rheumatoid factor titre. The quantity of complexed IgG was estimated from a ratio derived from the IgG profile obtained by gel filtration of the serum. This quantity correlated significantly with the degree of inhibition by the rheumatoid sera of cytolysis in vitro of IgG sensitized target cells by K cells from human peripheral blood. A significant inverse correlation was observed between the quantity of serum complexes and the chemotactic index of the circulating polymorphonuclear leucocytes obtained from the same rheumatoid patient. It is suggested that ingestion of these complexes may be implicated in the reduction in chemotaxis observed in patients with rheumatoid arthritis. There was no correlation between the quantity of the complexes in the sera and the clinica, haematological, and biochemical measurements.

Full text

PDF
314

Selected References

These references are in PubMed. This may not be the complete list of references from this article.

  1. Alarcón-Segovia D., Fishbein E., Abruzzo J. L., Heimer R. Serum hyperviscosity in Sjögren's syndrome interaction between IgG and IgG rheumatoid factor. Ann Intern Med. 1974 Jan;80(1):35–42. doi: 10.7326/0003-4819-80-1-35. [DOI] [PubMed] [Google Scholar]
  2. BENACERRAF B., SEBESTYEN M., COOPER N. S. The clearance of antigen antibody complexes from the blood by the reticuloendothelial system. J Immunol. 1959 Feb;82(2):131–137. [PubMed] [Google Scholar]
  3. Barnett I. G., MacLennan I. C. Inhibitory effect of rheumatoid sera on cell damage by lymphocytes. Ann Rheum Dis. 1972 Sep;31(5):425–425. doi: 10.1136/ard.31.5.425-a. [DOI] [PMC free article] [PubMed] [Google Scholar]
  4. Baum J., Mowat A. G., Kirk J. A. A simplified method for the measurement of chemotaxis of polymorphonuclear leukocytes from human blood. J Lab Clin Med. 1971 Mar;77(3):501–509. [PubMed] [Google Scholar]
  5. Blaylock W. M., Waller M., Normansell D. E. Sjögren's syndrome: hyperviscosity and intermediate complexes. Ann Intern Med. 1974 Jan;80(1):27–34. doi: 10.7326/0003-4819-80-1-27. [DOI] [PubMed] [Google Scholar]
  6. Calder E. A., Penhale W. J., Barnes E. W., Irvine W. J. Evidence for circulating immune complexes in thyroid disease. Br Med J. 1974 Apr 6;2(5909):30–31. doi: 10.1136/bmj.2.5909.30. [DOI] [PMC free article] [PubMed] [Google Scholar]
  7. Capra J. D., Winchester R. J., Kunkel H. G. Hypergammaglobulinemic purpura. Studies on the unusual anti- -globulins characteristic of the sera of these patients. Medicine (Baltimore) 1971 Mar;50(2):125–138. [PubMed] [Google Scholar]
  8. FRANKLIN E. C., HOLMAN H. R., MULLER-EBERHARD H. J., KUNKEL H. G. An unusual protein component of high molecular weight in the serum of certain patients with rheumatoid arthritis. J Exp Med. 1957 May 1;105(5):425–438. doi: 10.1084/jem.105.5.425. [DOI] [PMC free article] [PubMed] [Google Scholar]
  9. Hallberg T. In vitro cytotoxicity of human lymphocytes for sensitized chicken erythrocytes is inhibited by sera from rheumatoid arthritis patients. Scand J Immunol. 1972;1(4):329–338. doi: 10.1111/j.1365-3083.1972.tb03298.x. [DOI] [PubMed] [Google Scholar]
  10. Hersey P., Cullen P., MacLennan I. C. Lymphocyte-dependent cytotoxic antibody activity against human transplantation antigens. Transplantation. 1973 Jul;16(1):9–16. doi: 10.1097/00007890-197307000-00003. [DOI] [PubMed] [Google Scholar]
  11. Jewell D. P., MacLennan I. C. Circulating immune complexes in inflammatory bowel disease. Clin Exp Immunol. 1973 Jun;14(2):219–226. [PMC free article] [PubMed] [Google Scholar]
  12. KUNKEL H. G., MULLER-EBERHARD H. J., FUDENBERG H. H., TOMASI T. B. Gamma globulin complexes in rheumatoid arthritis and certain other conditions. J Clin Invest. 1961 Jan;40:117–129. doi: 10.1172/JCI104224. [DOI] [PMC free article] [PubMed] [Google Scholar]
  13. MacLennan I. C. Competition for receptors for immunoglobulin on cytotoxic lymphocytes. Clin Exp Immunol. 1972 Feb;10(2):275–283. [PMC free article] [PubMed] [Google Scholar]
  14. Mancini G., Carbonara A. O., Heremans J. F. Immunochemical quantitation of antigens by single radial immunodiffusion. Immunochemistry. 1965 Sep;2(3):235–254. doi: 10.1016/0019-2791(65)90004-2. [DOI] [PubMed] [Google Scholar]
  15. Mowat A. G., Baum J. Chemotaxis of polymorphonuclear leukocytes from patients with rheumatoid arthritis. J Clin Invest. 1971 Dec;50(12):2541–2549. doi: 10.1172/JCI106754. [DOI] [PMC free article] [PubMed] [Google Scholar]
  16. Norberg R. IgG complexes in serum of rheumatoid arthritis patients. Scand J Immunol. 1974;3(3):229–236. doi: 10.1111/j.1365-3083.1974.tb01253.x. [DOI] [PubMed] [Google Scholar]
  17. Pope R. M., Mannik M., Gilliland B. C., Teller D. C. The hyperviscosity syndrome in rheumatoid arthritis due to intermediate complexes formed by self-association of IgG-rheumatoid factors. Arthritis Rheum. 1975 Mar-Apr;18(2):97–106. doi: 10.1002/art.1780180201. [DOI] [PubMed] [Google Scholar]
  18. Schrohenloher R. E. Characterization of the gamma-globulin complexes present in certain sera having high titers of anti-gamma-globulin activity. J Clin Invest. 1966 Apr;45(4):501–512. doi: 10.1172/JCI105364. [DOI] [PMC free article] [PubMed] [Google Scholar]

Articles from Annals of the Rheumatic Diseases are provided here courtesy of BMJ Publishing Group

RESOURCES