Hepatobiliary clearance of IgA immune complexes formed in the circulation.

The formation and clearance of circulating IgA immune complexes from blood to bile was investigated in this study. The i.v. injection of either MOPC-315, an IgA M-component with antidinitrophenyl (DNP) specificity, or TEPC-15, an IgA M-component of a different specificity, was followed by i.v. injection of 125I-DNP10-bovine serum albumin (BSA) as the antigen. The formation and clearance of IgA immune complexes in the circulation of MOPC-315-treated, but not TEPC-15-treated animals was demonstrated by immunoprecipitation with polyacrylamide beads coated with rabbit anti-mouse IgA. IgA-125I-DNP10-BSA complexes were identified in the bile from MOPC-315-treated, but not TEPC-15-treated animals utilizing this same immunoprecipitation technique. These observations suggest that the liver or bile ducts transport IgA immune complexes from blood into bile. The clearance of 125I-DNP10-BSA from the circulation was documented by coprecipitation with rabbit anti-BSA and BSA. The clearance of this circulating antigen was slower in the MOPC-315-treated than in the TEPC-15-treated animals suggesting that under the conditions of the present experiment, circulating antigen is cleared more slowly after IgA immune complex formation.