Physico-Chemical Characterization of the Cold Auto-Antibodies of Acquired Haemolytic Anaemia

Cold agglutinins were separated from the sera of eleven patients suffering from the cold-antibody type of acquired haemolytic anaemia by the dissociation of the specific antigen-antibody complexes. The electrophoretic mobility of the cold antibody was found to correspond to that of γ1 globulin in each case. Ultracentrifugal studies carried out on eluted cold antibodies prepared from the sera of seven patients demonstrated that the antibodies were macromolecules (S20.w∼18.1). In one instance the sedimentation coefficient of the cold antibody was demonstrated to be similar to that of electrophoretically separated `γ1 globulin' prepared from the same serum, indicating their identical physical state. The results of treating the sera of nineteen patients with the cold-antibody type of acquired haemolytic anaemia with mercapto-ethanol further confirmed that the cold antibodies were all macromolecules, whether derived from idiopathic cases or cases secondary to some other known disorder.