Comparative chemical analyses of the alloantigenic fragments of HL-A antigens

Abstract

Papain-solubilized HL-A antigens have been shown to contain two polypeptide fragments: beta2-micro-globulin with a molecular weight of approximately 12,000 and a larger fragment with a molecular weight of about 34,000. The large fragments isolated from two HL-A preparations carrying different specificities appeared homogeneous both by immunoelectrophoresis and sodium dodecyl sulfate-acrylamide electrophoresis. Both HL-A antigen preparations contained the same NH2-terminal (glycine) and the same COOH-terminal residue (serine). The carbohydrate content of the large fragment was 12.9%, making the carbohydrate-free molecular weight approximately 30,000. Small but significant differences have been found in the amino acid compositions and tryptic peptide maps of the two large fragments containing different specificities.