Reaction of selenium with immunoglobulin molecules.

Radioactive selenite reacts with purified human and goat immunoglobulins at acidic and neutral pH. The antigenic properties of the immunoglobulins are retained during the selenium labelling as shown by immunoelectrophoresis and autoradiography. Pepsin digests of 75Se-labelled IgG possess 75Se both in the (Fab')2 fraction and in the low molecular weight peptides derived from the Fc domains. Alpha-1-acid glycoprotein, ribonuclease, and lysozyme are also labelled by this procedure. Enhancement of 75Se incorporation by urea, guanidinium chloride, mercaptoethanol, sodium sulfite and carrier selenite is interpreted as an effect of destabilization of IgG disulfide bonds. Up to 1.4 g atoms Se per mol IgG have been incorporated. We assume that selenite is cleaving disulfides by a process akin to sulfitolysis. The lability of the isolated 75Se-labelled IgG to high concentrations of mercaptans and sulfite is consistent with this idea. These 75Se-labelled proteins may be useful in structure studies and radioimmunoassay.