Immunogenicity and specificity of collagen. VI. Separation of antibody fractions with restricted specificity from anti-collagen sera using an immunoadsorbent technique

Abstract

Rabbit antisera to calf collagen were investigated using columns of denatured rabbit collagen insolubilized by coupling to diazotized p-aminobenzyl cellulose. Only antibodies with general collagen specificity were bound onto the immunoadsorbent. Species specific antibodies passed through the column and were isolated in the effluent. Column-bound antibodies could be desorbed by elution with collagen peptides. The separated antibody fractions exhibited in haemagglutination—inhibition experiments with calf and rabbit collagen and collagen peptides a characteristic behaviour allowing the differentiation between them. The results support the assumption drawn from serological experiments that most antisera contain mixtures of antibodies with different specificities.