Immunochemical studies on dextran-specific and levan-specific myeloma proteins from nzb mice

Two dextran-specific (PC 3858 and PC 3936) and one levan-specific (PC 3660) NZB myeloma proteins were studied by quantitative precipitin and precipitin-inhibition assays. Both myeloma antidextrans were α-D(1→6) specific and precipitated strongly with a synthetic, linear dextran molecular weight 36,500, and with other dextrans. The two myeloma antidextrans differed with respect to their relative reactivities with dextrans containing various proportions of α-D-(1→6), α-D-(1→4)-like, and α-D-(1→3)-like linkages. In inhibition assays, the two antidextran myeloma proteins behaved differently from each other, from α-D-(1→6)-specific BALB/c myeloma antidextrans, and from the human antidextrans previously studied. Isomalto-oligosaccharides IM3, IM4, and IM5 were all equal in inhibitory power but were only about 60% as potent as IM6 and IM7, which also inhibited equally on a molar basis. Although precipitation with linear dextran suggests that both may have groove-type sites, as previously inferred for QUPC 52, the size of their combining sites is uncertain. It is not clear whether the sites are only as big as three glucose residues with the increased inhibition by six and seven glucose residues being attributable to partial bivalence and to their ability to combine in several ways along the chain, or whether the site is as big as six glucose residues with the increment in binding by the fourth and fifth glucose residues being minimal and the sixth contributing considerable additional binding-energy. The fructan-specific myeloma protein did not react with inulin, but reacted with many levans and with perennial rye-grass levan containing only β-D-(2→6) links. The levan-antilevan reaction was not inhibited by β-D-(2→1)-linked oligosaccharides. The findings suggest that PC 3660 has a specificity for (2→6)-linked chains.