Circulating immune complexes in Hodgkin's disease. Reactivity of IgG isolated from circulating immune complexes.

In our earlier report on circulating immune complexes (CIC) from sera of patients with Hodgkin's disease (HD), we demonstrated disease-associated increase in the intensity of a 40kD (pl 5.6) polypeptide in the CIC. In extension of these investigations, we now report that the 40kD moiety exists in CIC as a complex with IgG, and that IgG isolated from such CIC samples from sera of patients with HD shows preferential reactivity with the typical large binucleate Reed-Sternberg (R-S) cells in the sections of disease-involved lymph nodes from HD patients.