Antisera to normal 7S gamma-globulin and to Bence Jones proteins permit the grouping of myeloma proteins (gamma and beta 2A types), Bence Jones proteins, and the Waldenström type macroglobulins into two fundamental antigenic groups. The antigenic determinants responsible for this grouping are common to all these proteins which fall in the general category of immunoglobulins. Antisera to Bence J...

The chemical relations among Bence-Jones proteins, myeloma proteins, and normal gamma-globulins have been investigated by a variety of means. Starch gel electrophoresis in 8 M urea of reduced alkylated Bence-Jones proteins yielded patterns of bands corresponding to those of the light (L) polypeptide chains of the dissociated myeloma protein from the same patient. One instance in which this corr...

The immunochemical demonstration that the Bence Jones protein from the urine of an individual patient with multiple myeloma was antigenically identical to a portion of the homologous serum myeloma protein (1), and the establishment of the chemical and structural similarities between Benee Jones proteins and light polypeptide chains (2, 3) which are common to immunoglobulins of all known classes...

By means of immunodiffusion and immunoelectrophoresis study has been made of antigenic relationships of Bence Jones proteins, and the three classes of normal and pathological immunoglobulins, 7S gamma, beta(2A), and beta(2M). All thirty-nine Bence Jones proteins studied could be classified into either one of two distinct antigenic types, A or B. Both types are related to the immunoelectrophoret...

The effects of chemotherapy were evaluated in 43 multiple myeloma patients with high monoclonal globulin levels in both serum and urine. In responding patients, Bence Jones protein excretion declined more rapidly and markedly than the serum myeloma protein. Bence Jones protein excretion was reduced by 50% within 2 mo in responders, remained unchanged in nonresponders, and declined with a slow h...

Edelman and Gally (1) have recently shown that an individual's Bence Jones proteins are chemically and physically similar to the low molecular weight polypeptides (L chains) obtained by reductive cleavage of his myeloma proteins. Indeed, Putnam (2) has shown that peptide maps of the tryptic digests of oxidized Bence Jones proteins correspond to a portion of the peptide map of similarly treated ...

Agglutinating substances having characteristics of naturally occurring macroglobulin antibodies to human Bence Jones proteins have been identified in human sera. By means of hemagglutination and hemagglutination inhibition techniques, common determinants have been demonstrated on the light (L) polypeptide chains of pooled normal human gamma(2)-globulin and on some Bence Jones proteins of group ...

Oral administration of amino acids labeled with N15 or with Cl3 to patients with multiple myeloma, followed by isolation of the abnormal serum and urinary proteins, has led previously to the conclusion that Bence-Jones protein is not derived by cleavage of circulating serum proteins nor by degradation of tissue proteins (1, 2). In point of fact, no evidence for any kind of precursor relationshi...