A STUDY OF GAMMA GLOBULIN IN RHEUMATOID ARTHRITIS 1

Abstract

The authors collected pools of plasma from patients with rheumatoid arthritis and from normal subjects. The gamma globulin from these pools was separated by a modi-fled cold ethanol procedure for handling small volumes, and tagged with I13l. Human albumin from commercial sources was used as a control. The half-life of both gamma globulin and albumin given intravenously to rheumatoid arthritis patients and normal was determined. Rheumatoid patients removed both proteins from their blood more rapidly than did normal subjects. Patients did not differentiate between normal and patient gamma globulin. Joint stromata did not take up labeled rheumatoid gamma globulin preferentially. Biopsies of various types of Joint disease, obtained the day after the subject received I131 tagged rheumatoid gamma globulin, showed a non-specific pattern of tissue uptake of the tag proportional to the degree of inflammatory reaction present. These studies did not demonstrate a specific relation between the gamma globulin portion of the plasma and the presence of rheumatoid arthritis in patients with this disease.