The subunits of antigens of ragweed pollen A previous report from this laboratory1 described an antigenic correlation between two purified antigens of ragweed pollen : antigen E (ref. z) and BPA-R (Basic Protein Antigen-Ragweed).
While current immunodiffusion experiments have shown that antigen s E and BPA-R possess common antigenic determinants, antigen E appears to contain additiorral determinants which are absent in BPA-R. Further experiments were designed to investigate the structural basis of this relationship.
The analysis of the subunits of totally reduced proteins by gel chromatography in guanidine hydrochloride (GuHCl) have been reported from several laboratories3-Jj. The present rebort deals with the use of the above method for resolving the subunit composition ,of ragweed pollen antigens.
[email protected] I , Refcreqzce +oteins and reagents. The following reference proteins and their molecular weight assignments* were used in this study: ovalbumin (43,000), chymotrypsinogen (25,700), P-lactoglobulin (18,400) and cytochrome C (12,400) were purchased from Calbiochem, San Diego, Calif. Hemoglobin* (15,500) wai obtained from Mann Research Laboratories, New York, N.Y. Rabbit yG-globulin was prepared from normal rabbit sera by the method of LEVI AND SOBERS. The molecular weights assigned to the, heavy and, light chains of yG-globulin were 4g,ooo and, 23,500, respectively. Guanidine hydrochloride was obtained from the Eastman Co., Rochester, N.Y. and Heico Inc., Delaware Water Gap, Pa. Iodoacetic acid and 2-mercaptoethanol were Eastman Co. products.
Reduction of pvoteins.
For the reduction of reference proteins we used the