Analysis of charge of kappa and lambda chain-containing serum immunoglobulin A by immunoblotting and densitometry

A novel method for studying the charge distribution of different subclasses of serum immunoglobulin A (defined by the light chains) is described. Affinity-chromatography purified immunoglobulins were focused in polyacrylamide gel and were then transferred electrophoretically onto nitrocellulose membranes. The transferred immunoglobulins were detected by rabbit antiserum to human kappa (kappa) or lambda (lambda) chain, swine antirabbit IgG, rabbit anti-peroxidase antibodies and peroxidase, together with a substrate solution comprising H2O2 and diaminobenzidine. Finally, the developed membranes were made transparent with Triton-x 114, scanned at 485 nm with a densitometer to obtain quantitation of charge distribution.