Immunoprecipitates used as a reagent for rheumatoid factors

IgM and IgG rheumatoid factors (RFs) were purified by affinity chromatography and gel filtration. The preparations thus obtained were used as standards in a radio-immunoassay for RF detection. In this assay, RFs were reacted with immunoprecipitates, and the RFs were detected with radiolabelled (F(ab')2 fragments specific for human IgM or IgG. The reproducibility of the assay was higher when RF content was expressed relative to the standards and not directly relative to tracer binding. It was found that the presence of IgM RF did not affect the measurement of IgG RF in this RIA, since the addition of neither mono- nor polyclonal IgM RF to a donor serum resulted in increased IgG RF measurements. 100 sera were analysed and were consistently positive in only one of the tests: sheep cell agglutination or latex fixation. The 75% of the sera which were positive only in the latex fixation test were positive for IgM RF in the radio-immunoassay, indicating that RFs in this type of serum were not specific solely for human IgG.