Chemical studies on a monoclonal immunoglobulin from a patient with carcinoma of the colon

Abstract

Structural studies were carried out on a monotypic immunoglobulin (Ig) isolated from a patient suffering from a colon tumor. Results indicated that the light (L) chain of this protein belonged to the VkappaII subgroup and was devoid of known Inv allotypic determinants, whereas the heavy (H) chain variable (V) region belonged to the VHIII subgroup and its constant (C) region was of the gamma1 subclass and was Gm (a+Z+). The amino acid sequence of a total of 106 residues has been determined for this molecule. An extra cysteine was present at the fourth hypervarible region of the heavy chain. Preliminary results indicated that the Fc fragment of this protein did not include the inter-heavy-chain disulfide bonds.