Turnover of Monoclonal γM-Globulins (Cold Agglutinins) and Their Subunits

Olesen, H. & Hippe, E. Turnover of Monoclonal γM-Globulins (Cold Agglutinins) and Their Subunits. Scand. J. clin. Lab. Invest. 22, 157-164, 1968. Cold agglutinins from patients with cold agglutinin syndrome have been labelled with radioactive iodine and studied in vivo in the patients and in normals. The fractional catabolic rate was constant from day to day for the individual cold agglutinin (γM-globulin) but varied from 0.42 to 0.89 per cent per day for the different cold agglutinins. The fractional catabolic rate was the same in normals as in the patients. From these results it is deduced that the fractional catabolic rate of γM-globulins is independent of the concentration, and that normal γM-globulin will prove to be metabolically heterogeneous.Depolymerized cold agglutinin and heavy and light chains from cold agglutinin were eliminated 50 to 100 times faster than the unsplit protein.