Studies of heat precipitable immunoglobulins.

The nature of the heat precipitation of 3 mononoclonal heat labile immunoglobulins was studied. These included 2 γG pyroglobulins and one γM pyroglobulin. Thermoprecipitable activity of both γG pyroglobulins could be localized to their heavy chains and to the Fab fragments of one of them. Heat precipitability of the γM paraprotein required the presence of the intact γM molecule since 7S subunits did not precipitate. The thermal precipitates appeared to result from intramolecular or intermolecular reactions with the formation of strong covalent bonds rather than weak non-covalent bonds. The importance of disulphide bonding was excluded in the precipitation of both γG but not in the γM pyroglobulins. Heat precipitation of the monoclonal γM resulted in coprecipitation of other proteins, particularly γG globulin, which suggested a specific type of reaction with this immunoglobulin. The interaction of the γM pyroglobulin, normal γG and heat produced an irreversible precipitate.