FORMATION OF NOVEL COLLOIDAL IMMUNOCLUSTERS BY SURFACE-ACTIVE ANTIBODIES

Surface active antibodies were formed by covalent attachment of hydrop hobic groups to IgG molecules. The modification was carried out at var ious degrees of attachment and various chain lengths. These modified a ntibodies spontaneously formed new colloidal micelle-like particles, i mmunoclusters, which were viewed with a transmission electron microsco pe and evaluated by light scattering. We found that the size of the im munoclusters increased while either degree of attachment or chain-leng th were increased, and that the biological activity decreased with the increase of degree of modification. (C) 1995 Academic Press, Inc.