IMMUNOCHEMICAL PROPERTIES OF NATIVE AND DENATURED HORSE SERUM GLOBULINS

1. The influence of guanidine hydrochloride on the denaturation and regeneration of Type I antipneumococcal horse serum globulin was determined by measurements of viscosity, diffusion, and sedimentation in the ultracentrifuge. In addition, the effect of NaCNS on the antibody globulin was studied. 2. Both the irreversibly denatured and the regenerated fractions were found to be precipitable by SI. The observed changes in combining ratio have been tentatively explained in terms of (a) changes in the mean molecular weight, or alternatively (b) an increase in the number of serologically active groups upon denaturation, followed by masking of the latter upon regeneration. Discounting a specific effect of NaCNS on either fraction, the extent of specific precipitation is of the same order of magnitude for native and irreversibly denatured antibody. 3. Quantitative precipitin titrations have been performed on rabbit antisera to native and irreversibly denatured horse antibody, and normal globulin GI, respectively. No significant differences in the antigenic activity of these proteins were found. Measurements of their cross-reactivity led to the conclusion that the native and irreversibly denatured fractions of antibody globulin are antigenically more closely related to each other than to the corresponding fractions of normal globulin, and vice versa.