Heat production in different populations of human blood cells exposed to immune complexes in vitro: the importance of the Fc parts of immunoglobulins and the influence of active complement.

By use of a batch microcalorimeter of the thermopile type, heat production was measured in isolated populations of human peripheral blood cells exposed to defined immune complexes formed in vitro. It was found that most of the heat production recorded in whole blood after admixture of immune complexes occurs in the granulocytes. Under these conditions small but constantly higher activation values were found in the absence of active complement. It was shown that complexes consisting of antigen and F(ab)2 fragments prepared from the specific antibodies were able to initiate heat production in the cells only in the presence of active complement. These experiments indicate that immune complexes are able to induce increased heat production in the cells either by binding to Fc receptors or by activation of complement through the alternative pathway and subsequent binding of the generated C3b to C3b receptors on the heat-producing cells.