Characterization of immune complexes by isoelectric focusing in agarose gels.

A method is described for the characterization of immune complexes on thin-layer agarose isoelectric focusing (IEF) gels. This method involves dissociating immune complexes and then maintaining this dissociation during IEF in agarose gels containing 9 M urea. After IEF, the immune complex components can be quantitatively transferred to nitrocellulose in less than 15 min, and a variety of immunostaining procedures can be used to probe these blotted components. No loss of biological activity was detected in any of the blotted components.