Activity of antibodies recovered from immune complexes of ovarian cancer patients.

Ascites fluids from ovarian cancer patients contain immune complexes (IC). Attempts were made to characterize those antigens to which the patient is reacting using antibody recovered from these complexes. Polyethylene glycol (PEG) precipitation and protein A Sepharose 4B affinity chromatography were used to isolate IC. Dissociation of the IC was achieved by G-150 gel filtration in 0.1 M acetic acid, 0.15 M NaCl. Activity of antibody preparations was measured using a binding assay with 125I-labeled staphylococcal protein A. Confluent monolayers of various cell lines (including human ovarian and cervical carcinoma lines, human lymphoblastoid cell lines, human and chick embryo fibroblasts) were used. Six of nine antibody preparations isolated from ovarian cancer patient IC contained at least some reactivity against all cell types. Specificity was further defined using cell adsorption assays and polyacrylamide gel electrophoresis. These results indicate what appears to be autoreactivity directed against a normal component(s) of many cells. No evidence for an ovarian cancer-restricted response was shown. Immunoprecipitation analyses showed several polypeptide bands on autoradiograms (49K, 46K, 33K, 25K), which deviated distinctly from the pattern obtained for whole cell extracts.