Ferritin, a Hodgkin's disease associated antigen.

Antigens which exist in high frequency in tumor tissues of patients with Hodgkin's disease have been obtained in relatively concentrated form by gel chromatography procedures. Further purification and analysis of these antigens performed in the present study have demonstrated that the antigen of fast electrophoretic mobility (F-antigen) is normal tissue ferritin. The identification of F-antigen as ferritin has been made on the basis of comparative physicochemical and immunological analyses of purified F-antigen and normal ferritin. Thus, F-antigen was found to contain iron and to be similar to ferritin in molecular weight, amino-acid composition, electrophoretic mobility, isoelectric distribution, and immunological reactivity. Absorption of a monospecific heterologous anti-F antiserum with normal tissue ferritin completely removed all anti-F antibody activity. Moreover, the absorption of polyspecific heterologous antiserum to crude Hodgkin's extracts, which contains antibodies reacting with F-antigen, the slower migrating S-antigen, and a third specificity present in lysates of normal peripheral blood lymphocytes (PL-antigen), with ferritin, removed only anti-F activity, thus distinguishing the S- and PL-antigens from ferritin. The existence of ferritin in high quantities in serum of Hodgkin's disease patients may provide a tool of potential diagnostic and prognostic importance in the management of this disease.