A new technique, liquid-liquid partition chromatography in an aqueous
polyethylene glycol-dextran two-phase system, was used to detect diffe
rences in surface properties of antibodies with different antigen-bind
ing sites. Employing well-characterized monoclonal IgG antibodies and
Fab and Fc fragments thereof as well as chimeric IgG antibodies we fou
nd a remarkable relationship between structure of the antibody combini
ng site and chromatographic behaviour. The surface properties of the I
gG antibodies were dominated by those of its antigen-binding regions.
In addition, our results indicated that the constant parts of the IgGs
form similar scaffoldings, on to which CDRs of variable shapes and si
zes are interspaced and constitute the major dominant differences in e
xposed surface properties.