Comparison of the Effect of Elastase on Human Secretory IgA and Serum IgA

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Abstract
During the last several years three papers were published on the effect of pancreatic elastase on immunoglobulins (1–3). De Vaux St. Cyr and Heremans (1) reported that digestion of human IgG with elastase yielded two fragments which they believed to be similar to the Fab and Fc produced by trypsin digestion of IgG, and Waller et al. (3) demonstrated that the two fragments resulting from elastase digestion of IgG gave a reaction of identity in gel diffusion studies with the Fab and Fc obtained by papain digestion. To date there has been no report on the effect of elastase digestion on serum IgA or secretory IgA. Recent studies (4–7) have suggested that human secretory IgA is less susceptible to proteolytic degradation than serum IgA. The following investigation was undertaken in order to compare the effect of elastase digestion on these two immunoglobulins. Materials and Methods. Secretory IgA was prepared from colostrum obtained 1 to 4 days postpartum.

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