Rapid immune adherence reactivity of nascent, soluble antibody/DNA immune complexes in the circulation.

Immune complex disease in humans and experimental animals can occur as a consequence of the binding of specific antibodies to exogenous or endogenous antigens. If this reaction occurs in the circulation, the fate of the resulting immune complex may depend upon many factors including the ability of the immune complex to fix complement and bind to complement receptors on circulating cells (immune adherence). We studied the in vivo formation and immune adherence of soluble antibody/dsDNA immune complexes in the circulation of both a nonprimate and a primate model. The fact that this sequence of biological recognition reactions is completed in less than 2 min suggests that the immune adherence phenomenon may play a crucial role in the clearance of nascent complement-fixing immune complexes from the circulation.