Circulating antigen-antibody complexes in onchocerciasis.

The presence of circulating antigen-antibody complexes in the sera of patients with onchocerciasis was investigated using the Clq and conglutinin solid-phase binding assays. Only 50% of patients' sera had demonstrable complexes, levels of complexes were unrelated to microfilarial load and specific anti-onchocercal antibody titres and results with the two tests for complexes were not correlated. Both IgM- and IgG-containing complexes were commonly involved but there was no correlation between the levels of complexes containing these isotypes. Evidence for the presence of IgE in complexes of sera from a minority of individuals was also obtained.