Immune complexes: characteristics, clinical correlations, and interpretive approaches in the clinical laboratory.

1982 ◽  
Vol 28 (6) ◽  
pp. 1259-1271 ◽  
Author(s):  
S E Ritzmann ◽  
J C Daniels

Abstract Immune-complex-mediated injury is thought to play a role in diseases such as rheumatoid arthritis, systemic lupus erythematosus, serum sickness, various infectious diseases, and malignancies. With increased appreciation of the biological and pathological significance of circulating immune complexes has come efforts to develop appropriate techniques for identifying and measuring them. Common approaches exploit such phenomena as the attachment of complement components to antigen-antibody complexes, the presence of specialized receptors for immune complexes at the surface of cells, and the ability of rheumatoid factor to bind with immune complexes. This variety of assay systems for immune complexes has yielded abstruse results in numerous human pathological conditions. Unfortunately, these results seldom correlate with one another in a given disease. Thus, use of a panel of immune complex assays has been recommended. Indirect consequences of immune complex disease may still be appraised and evaluated with some confidence in clinical medicine: measurements of C3 and C4, cryoglobulins, serum viscosity, and turbidity of serum samples. Measurement of immune complexes may be useful in diagnosis, prognosis, and therapeutic monitoring, but it is the characterization of immune complexes that holds the greatest potential for better understanding of disease mechanisms.

1971 ◽  
Vol 133 (3) ◽  
pp. 554-571 ◽  
Author(s):  
P. M. Henson ◽  
C. G. Cochrane

By depletion of C3 from rabbits undergoing acute experimental immune complex disease with an anticomplementary factor in cobra venom, it has been possible to demonstrate that deposition of the complexes in arteries and glomeruli does not require the complement components reacting after C2. Immunological reactions, in which platelets release their vasoactive amines, have been examined in rabbits undergoing immune complex disease. A correlation was obtained between the presence of a complement-independent reaction which required blood leukocytes, antigen and platelets, the deposition of immune complexes, and the induction of glomerulonephritis. C3 depletion did, however, have a marked alleviating effect on the severity of the arterial lesions. Neutrophil accumulation and the subsequent necrotizing arteritis were prevented. In contrast, the character and severity of the glomerulonephritis was not altered by depletion of later-acting complement components.


2012 ◽  
Vol 130 (3) ◽  
pp. 205-208 ◽  
Author(s):  
Ana Lúcia R. Gonçalves ◽  
Claudio V. Silva ◽  
Marlene T. Ueta ◽  
Julia M. Costa-Cruz

Parasitology ◽  
2012 ◽  
Vol 139 (7) ◽  
pp. 956-961 ◽  
Author(s):  
A. L. R. GONÇALVES ◽  
D. S. NUNES ◽  
M. R. F. GONÇALVES-PIRES ◽  
M. T. UETA ◽  
J. M. COSTA-CRUZ

SUMMARYThe aim of this study was to use larval, parasitic female and egg antigens fromStrongyloides venezuelensisto detect parasite-specific IgG and immune complexes in human serum samples by enzyme-linked immunosorbent assay (ELISA). In total, 95 serum samples were analysed, consisting of 30 patients harbouringS. stercoralislarvae, 30 healthy subjects and 35 patients with other parasites. Sensitivity, specificity and diagnostic efficiency were calculated. A significant statistical difference was found in the detection of immune complexes and antibodies in patients harbouringS. stercoralislarvae from larval and eggs antigens, with higher positivity using larval antigen. The larval antigen showed the highest values for sensitivity, specificity and diagnostic efficiency in ELISA from detection of immune complexes. For the first time we used IgG anti-larvae, IgG anti-parasitic females or IgG anti-eggs for immune complex detection. We concluded that the association of antibody and immune complex detection could be used in the diagnosis of human strongyloidiasis.


1982 ◽  
Vol 63 (2) ◽  
pp. 10-13
Author(s):  
B. A. Molotilov ◽  
A. N. Mayansky ◽  
N. D. Pozdnyak ◽  
L. Ch. Samerkhanova

A study of circulating immune complexes was carried out using a reaction with polyethylene glycol. The method turned out to be simple, highly sensitive and affordable for any clinical laboratory with a photoelectric colorimeter. Analysis of the survey data of 115 healthy donors, 63 patients with rheumatoid arthritis and 16 patients with systemic lupus erythematosus made it possible to establish the level of circulating immune complexes in health and disease. The circulating immune complexes were studied in patients with rheumatism and chronic tonsillitis. To assess the results of the reaction, human aggregated gamma globulin (manufactured by Kazan NIIEM) was used.


1980 ◽  
Vol 26 (3) ◽  
pp. 396-402
Author(s):  
R H Kelly ◽  
M A Scholl ◽  
V S Harvey ◽  
A G Devenyi

Abstract On binding of antibody to antigen an immune complex is formed that has a net surface charge different from that of either of the two components. This, together with clonal restriction of the antibody response, gives rise to distinctive patterns that are readily apparent in stained agarose gels after routine zone electrophoresis. Most circulating immune complexes appear as a rectangular pattern, with well-defined edges, located in the gamma-region. The identity of the material responsible for these patterns has been established by three different experimental approaches: analysis of tetanus/anti-tetanus complexes formed in vitro, analysis of sera from rabbits with experimental immune complex disease, and analysis of human type II and type III cryoglobulins. Studies of reproducibility, interfering substances, and correlation with other assays for detecting immune complexes indicate that zone electrophoresis in agarose gel is a sensitive, highly specific technique for immune complex detection, of potential value as a screening tool.


1979 ◽  
Vol 25 (9) ◽  
pp. 1554-1560 ◽  
Author(s):  
R F Zuk ◽  
G L Rowley ◽  
E F Ullman

Abstract We describe a "fluorescence protection immunoassay," in which formation of an immune complex of a fluorescer-labeled antigen sterically protects the fluorescer from binding by antibodies to it. Competitive binding of unlabeled antigen by its antibody prevents formation of the fluorescer-labeled antigen immune complex, and allows anti-fluorescein to quench the fluorescence by binding to the fluorescer. This phenomenon is the basis of a new homogeneous assay technique that requires no separation step. The steric exclusion of anti-fluorescein from fluorescein-labeled human IgG immune complexes was altered by changing the molecular dimensions ob both antifluorescein and the immune complex. The assay did not require highly purified fluorescein-labeled human IgG. An assay is demonstrated in which was used a fluorescein-labeled human IgG conjugate containing IgG that was only 10% pure. Measurement of IgG in human serum samples correlated well with results by radial immunodiffusion. The method is applicable to the assay of both proteins and analytes of low molecular mass.


2019 ◽  
Vol 21 (1) ◽  
Author(s):  
Azita Sohrabian ◽  
Ioannis Parodis ◽  
Nellie Carlströmer-Berthén ◽  
Martina Frodlund ◽  
Andreas Jönsen ◽  
...  

Abstract Introduction Immune complexes are of importance in systemic lupus erythematosus pathogenesis, and autoantibodies are believed to participate in immune complex formation. Quantification of autoantibody levels in circulating IC might be of prognostic value. Methods A C1q-binding-eluting technique was applied to purify immune complexes from 55 belimumab-treated systemic lupus erythematosus patients during a 24-month follow-up. Autoantibodies in serum and in solubilized immune complexes were quantified using addressable laser bead immunoassay. We investigated whether levels of autoantibodies in immune complexes associate with disease activity and response to belimumab treatment. Results High baseline anti-double-stranded DNA and anti-histone levels in immune complexes associated with attainment of zero scores in clinical systemic lupus erythematosus disease activity index 2000 during the 24-month follow-up (p = 0.003 and p = 0.048, respectively). Low complement levels associated with high serum anti-double-stranded DNA and anti-ribosomal P levels (p = 0.003 and p = 0.008, respectively) and high anti-double-stranded DNA (p = 0.002) but not anti-ribosomal P levels in immune complexes. Anti-SSA/SSB serum levels were lower in patients attaining lupus low disease activity state at month 6; these associations were stronger for corresponding immune complex levels. Serum levels of most autoantibodies had declined at month 3, whereas autoantibody levels in immune complexes, except for anti-double-stranded DNA, showed a more gradual decline over 1–2 years. Serum anti-double-stranded DNA levels decreased in all patients irrespective of systemic lupus erythematosus disease activity index 2000=0 attainment, whereas immune complex levels decreased only in achievers. Conclusion Immune complex levels of autoantibodies against double-stranded DNA and the SSA/SSB complex show more specific associations with treatment outcome compared with serum levels in belimumab-treated systemic lupus erythematosus patients. Characterization of autoantibody content in circulating immune complexes could prove useful in treatment evaluation in systemic lupus erythematosus and other immune complex-associated diseases.


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