Studies on structural units of the gamma-globulins.

When human and rabbit 7S gamma-globulins were reduced in strong urea solutions by a number of procedures, their molecular weights fell to approximately (1/3) of the original values. Partial separation of the reduction products was achieved using chromatography and starch gel electrophoresis in urea solutions. One of the components of reduced human 7S gamma-globulin was isolated by chromatography, identified by starch gel electrophoresis, and subjected to amino acid analyses. The amino acid composition of this component differed from that of the starting material and also from that of the remaining components. A reduced pathological macroglobulin dissociated to components with an average molecular weight of 41,000. Several reduced human myeloma proteins, when subjected to starch gel electrophoresis, yielded individual patterns that nevertheless had features in common with those of reduced normal gamma-globulins. Reduction of normal and abnormal gamma-globulins was accompanied by the appearance of titratable sulfhydryl groups. Chemical treatments other than reduction were used to determine the type of bond holding the subunits together. It was tentatively concluded that they were linked by disulfide bonds. An hypothesis is presented to relate the structural features of the various gamma-globulins in terms of the multiplicity of polypeptide chains in these molecules.