Circulating immune complexes in Hodgkin's disease.

Levels of circulating immune complexes (CIC) were estimated in the sera of 110 patients with Hodgkin's disease (HD) and of 103 normal subjects by polyethylene glycol precipitation method. Levels of CIC were significantly elevated in HD patients compared to normal subjects with 63% of the patients showing levels above 95th percentile of the normal. Patients with symptoms showed significantly elevated levels of CIC compared to patients without symptoms. There was a good correlation between the levels of CIC and the clinical stages, the former increasing from stage I to IV. However, no such correlation was noticed with respect to the histological type of the disease. On polyacrylamide gel electrophoresis CIC of normal subjects as well as of HD patients showed a number of protein bands. But CIC of HD patients had one additional band with approximate molecular weight of 130 000 which was absent in CIC of normal subjects.