Human Gamma Globulin

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Abstract
The relation of hereditary gamma globulin types to the structural subunits of human gamma-globulin is briefly reviewed. In human 7S gamma-globulin, serologically detectable factors controlled by genes at two distinct loci are related to two distinct chains with differing chemical, immunologic, and biologic properties. Based on an analogy to the human hemoglobins, a hypothesis is presented concerning the presence and genetic control of additional distinctive chains in the gamma1A and 19S components of the gamma globulins. Presumably, each of the three components of the gamma-globulins, like the three components of normal adult hemoglobin, consists of two chains, one common to each of the three immune globulins and another peculiar to the specific immune globulin. Four genetic loci control the elaboration of the one common and three distinctive chains. Evidence for this hypothesis is provided by observations suggesting genetically determined repression of one of these structural subunits in probands with various forms of agammaglobulinemia. It is suggested that quantitative aberrations in one or another of the various chains of human gamma-globulins are related to repressor genes at one or more of the postulated four loci and that the various forms of agammaglobulinemia in humans are determined by the loci involved by the mutant repressor genes.

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