Cleavage of the four human IgG subclasses with cathepsin G

Cathepsin G, the chymotrypsin-like serine proteinase from human polymorphonuclear leucocytes, cleaves human IgG. The relative susceptibilities of the four IgG subclasses to the action of this enzyme were studied kinetically and showed the following decreasing order of susceptibility: IgG3 much greater than IgG4 greater than IgG1 greater than IgG2. IgG1 and IgG2 produced primarily F(ab')2 and traces of Fc-related fragments. IgG4 gave rise to both Fab and F(ab')2 as major products, and small amounts of an Fc-related fragment were detected. The cleavage of IgG3 produced various fragments, depending on the experimental conditions: The primary fragments were Fab and Fch (Fc covalently joined to the extended hinge-region polypeptide of IgG3) and an intermediate Fab-Fch species. Both Fab and Fch were further degraded by cathepsin G. Fch was gradually split, giving rise to three subfragments that were finally degraded to dialysable peptides. The enzyme further cleaved the Fab fragment in the heavy-chain portion and released a polypeptide probably representing the VH domain.