Biomedical subjects

G Doekes

Publications and source records attributed to G Doekes.

79 records · Page 5Linked to original sources

PubMed1985

Felty syndrome: autoimmune neutropenia or immune-complex-mediated disease?

Immunofluorescence on polymorphonuclear cells (PMN) of patients with Felty syndrome (FS) revealed increased amounts of IgG, IgA, and IgM bound to the PMN surface compared with PMN of patients with rheumatoid arthritis alone. A positive correlation was found between the score for surface-bound immunoglobulins on FS-PMN and the results of the Clq binding assay in FS sera. After preincubation with sera from 20 patients with FS, immunofluorescence on PMN from healthy controls (HC) showed that these cells had bound IgG, IgA, and IgM. However F(ab')2 fragments of IgG from FS sera did not bind to PMN, although the antigen-binding reactivity of the F(ab')2 fragments was maintained as shown by control experiments. Immunoglobulins eluted from FS-PMN failed to bind to HC-PMN, whereas the corresponding IgG of patients with autoimmune neutropenia was bound. Gel filtration of FS sera on Sepharose 4B showed that the binding of IgG in FS sera to PMN did not coincide with the 7S peak but occurred mainly in fractions containing larger material. No binding of IgA and IgM to HC-PMN was found after incubation with FS sera pretreated with polyethylene glycol (PEG) to precipitate immune complexes. These results indicate that in sera of patients with FS the PMN-binding reactivity of IgG, IgA, and IgM is due to the binding of immune complexes containing these immunoglobulins and not to presence of autoantibodies directed to antigens on the neutrophil surface.

Antigen-Antibody Complex↗

PubMed1985

Binding and activation of human precursor C1 by soluble aggregates of human and rabbit IgG.

The capacities of soluble human and rabbit IgG aggregates to bind and to activate human C1 were compared. Aggregates prepared by incubation of purified IgG at 63 degrees C were fractionated by gel filtration and hemolytic assays were used to measure the binding and activation of isolated human precursor C1. The C1 binding and activation capacities of both human and rabbit IgG aggregates were highly dependent on their size. Human IgG aggregates had a slightly higher binding avidity for human C1 than rabbit IgG aggregates of comparable size, but no clear differences were found between their capacities to activate C1. Experiments with nonaggregated IgG also indicated that although human IgG binds human C1 somewhat more avidly, human and rabbit IgG do not differ in their capacities to initiate fluid-phase activation of the human classical complement pathway.

Animals↗

PubMed1985

Reduction of the complement activation capacity of soluble IgG aggregates and immune complexes by IgM-rheumatoid factor.

The influence of IgM-rheumatoid factor (IgM-RF) on the activation of isolated C1 by soluble IgG aggregates (AIgG) and immune complexes was studied. IgM preparations obtained from the sera of four patients with seropositive rheumatoid arthritis markedly reduced the C1 activation capacity of AIgG, especially when large aggregates were tested. The results of parallel experiments with radiolabelled AIgG indicated that this inhibitory effect of IgM-RF was accompanied by a very large increase of the aggregate size. A comparable IgM preparation isolated from pooled normal human serum influenced neither the size nor the C1 activation capacity of AIgG. The inhibitory effect of IgM-RF on C1 activation was also demonstrated for soluble tetanus-anti-tetanus immune complexes. Thus, in spite of the established C activation ability of IgM-RF and the fact that, in general, larger IgG aggregates and immune complexes activate C1 more efficiently, cross-linking and size enlargement of soluble IgG complexes and aggregates by IgM-RF lead to a decrease of the C1 activation capacity. As a consequence, IgM-RF may reduce plasma complement activation by soluble IgG complexes in the circulation of patients with seropositive rheumatic diseases.

Antigen-Antibody Complex↗

PubMed1984

Binding and activation of the first complement component by soluble immune complexes: effect of complex size and composition.

The interaction between soluble immune complexes and the first component of complement (C1) was studied. Complexes were prepared from purified bovine thyroglobulin (BTg) or tetanus toxoid (TT) and immunospecific IgG antibodies. Purified human precursor C1 was incubated with dilutions of the preparations, and the inhibition of C1 haemolytic activity was determined as a measure of C1-binding. The activation of C1 was assessed by measuring the amount of C4 consumed by generated C1. The molar antibody/antigen (Ab/Ag) ratio of BTg--anti-BTg mixtures strongly influenced their C1-binding and C1-activating capacities: mixtures with high Ab/Ag ratios were by far the most efficient. On the other hand, the Ab/Ag ratio had only a limited influence on the activity of TT--anti-TT complexes. The effect of complex size was investigated by ultracentrifugation of antibody-antigen mixtures on calibrated sucrose density gradients followed by C1-binding and -activation experiments with the fractions obtained. For both types of immune complex, the C1-binding and -activating capacities increased markedly with increasing complex size. Thus, both the size and the Ab/Ag ratio of soluble immune complexes influence their capacity to activate the classical complement pathway. The effect of the Ab/Ag ratio, however, may also be dependent on the antigen molecule(s) present in the complexes.

Animals↗

PubMed1983

Activation of C1 by soluble IgG aggregates as detected by a novel one-step hemolytic assay that specifically measures the proenzyme form of C1s.

A new hemolytic assay is described that specifically measures the precursor form of the C1s subcomponent of the complement system. The assay employs a C1s-depleted reagent obtained by immunoadsorption of fresh human plasma on immobilized goat anti-human C1s antibodies. Linear Z plots are obtained with nanogram levels of precursor C1s, whereas C1s completely fails to induce hemolysis in the assay. Because low concentrations of C1s do not interfere with the activity of precursor C1s, the assay can be used for the stoichiometric measurement of C1 activation. The precursor C1s assay was applied to the study of C1 binding and activation by soluble aggregates of human IgG (AIgG). Incubation of purified human C1 with AIgG caused a temperature-independent consumption of whole C1 hemolytic activity, indicating binding of C1, but almost no consumption of the total (precursor + activated) C1s activity. On the other hand, activation of C1, measured as the time- and temperature-dependent consumption of precursor C1s, could greatly exceed the binding of C1. These findings can be explained by using recent findings concerning the association-dissociation equilibrium between C1q and the tetrameric complex of C1r and C1s.

Animals↗

PubMed1983

C1- inactivator: its efficiency as a regulator of classical complement pathway activation by soluble IgG aggregates.

The role of C1- inactivator (C1(-)-In) during activation of the classical complement pathway by soluble immune complexes was studied using purified human complement components C1, C4 and C1(-)-In, and stabilized soluble aggregates of normal human IgG as a model for soluble immune complexes. The C4-consuming ability that could be generated by incubation of precursor C1 with IgG aggregates was abolished completely by the presence of a large excess of C1(-)-In during the C1 activation step. Kinetic studies confirmed that this inhibition was due to a second-order reaction between C1- and C1(-)-In resulting in the irreversible inactivation of C1-. When aggregates of various sizes were enabled to induce C4 conversion in mixtures of C1, C4 and a variable concentration of C1(-)-In, the presence of C1(-)-In had two effects. Firstly, the efficiency of the aggregates in causing C4 consumption was reduced remarkably. At a C1(-)-In:C1 ratio of 8, which can be found in normal human serum, approximately eight to ten times as many aggregates were required for a given level of C4 consumption as when no C1(-)-In was present. Secondly, C1(-)-In diminished the maximum C4 consumption that could be achieved, especially with smaller aggregates. Thus, a complete or partial C1(-)-In deficiency probably facilitates complement activation by soluble immune complexes in two ways: it may enhance the efficiency of classical pathway activation by all C1-activating complexes, and it may enable small complexes, which normally cannot overcome the C1(-)-In barrier, to activate the classical pathway to the C4 level.

Antigen-Antibody Complex↗

PubMed1982

Influence of aggregate size on the binding and activation of the first component of human complement by soluble IgG aggregates.

The interaction between small aggregates of human IgG and the first component of human complement was studied. Stabilized soluble IgG aggregates of restricted size were prepared by heat aggregation of human IgG, followed by sucrose-density ultracentrifugation. Human C1 was isolated in its precursor form by euglobulin precipitation, followed by gel filtration and immunoadsorption. A C1 preparation was obtained of which more than 90% was still in its unactivated form. Soluble aggregates containing 20, 10 or 5 molecules IgG, and monomeric IgG were tested for their ability to bind and to activate C1. The binding of C1 was determined by C1 consumption, whereas the activation of C1 was measured as the increased ability of the C1 preparation to consume purified human C4 after the incubation with the aggregates. The three aggregates tested and monomeric IgG were all able to bind and to activate C1, but the efficiency of both processes markedly increased with increasing aggregate-size. Furthermore, it was found that all four preparations activated an appreciable amount of C1 at concentrations that did not result in any detectable C1 fixation. These results confirm earlier suggestion that C1 can be activated during a short, transient binding to small aggregates or immune complexes that have a low avidity for C1, after which the activated form, C1, is released into the medium.

Binding Sites↗