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Separation and Isolation of Fractions of Rabbit Gamma-Globulin containing the Antibody and Antigenic Combining Sites

Abstract

SOME years ago1 the digestion of rabbit anti-ovalbumin with papain powder was investigated, and it was found that a fragment could be obtained which would no longer form a precipitate with ovalbumin but which would specifically inhibit the precipitation of ovalbumin with undigested antiserum. This fragment, which presumably contained an antibody-combining site, was believed to have a molecular weight of 40–50,000, or about one-quarter that of the original γ-globulin. Earlier, Peterman2 had shown by ultracentrifuge studies that digestion of human γ-globulin with crude bromelin and papain produced fragments of one-half to one-quarter the size of the original molecule.

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PORTER, R. Separation and Isolation of Fractions of Rabbit Gamma-Globulin containing the Antibody and Antigenic Combining Sites. Nature 182, 670–671 (1958). https://doi.org/10.1038/182670a0

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