Hepatitis B circulating immune complexes. Characterization by radioimmunoprecipitation--PEG assay (RIPEGA).

Incidence of circulating immune complexes (IC) was investigated in carriers of hepatitis B antigen (HBAg) and/or anti-HB antibodies (anti-HBAb). Three methods were used: radiolabelled C1q binding test (C1qBT), complement fixation test (CFT), and optical density (OD) measurement after dissolution of 3% polyethylene glycol (PEG) precipitate of serum. A highly significant correlation was obtained between these three techniques. The level of IC was higher in carriers of HBAg without anti-HBAb, than in others. The characterization of HBAg and anti-HBAB in IC was carried out by a new procedure, the radioimmunoprecipitation-PEG assay (RIPEGA), This sensitive and reproducible test was performed by incubation of 125I-HBAg or 125I-HBAG with 3% precipitate of the carriers' sera. Separation of free from complexed 125I-HBAg or 125I-HBAb was achieved by PEG precipitation. A highly significant correlation was found between the levels of circulating IC evaluated by the C1q-BT and the quantities of HBAg or anti HBAb measured by RIPEGA. RIPEGA was used to quantify HBAg and anti-HBAb present in serum from HBAg and/or anti-HBAb carriers, confirmed by a radioimmunoassay. In preliminary results, RIPEGA was shown to be more sensitive than classical radioimmunoassay.