Cryoglobulinemia in a horse.

Cryoglobulin was isolated from a horse which had glomerulo-nephritis and a history of swelling and skin ulcers of the limbs in the winter. The isolated cryoglobulin showed a single peak on a gel permeation chromatography column with an apparent molecular mass (Mr) of 180,000 which could be divided into two gamma bands by cellulose acetate electrophoresis. Immunoelectrophoretic analysis revealed that the cryoglobulin formed two precipitation lines with anti-horse IgG. Spur formation was observed when the cryoglobulin and the IgG purified from a normal healthy horse were cross-reacted with anti-horse IgG on a double diffusion gel. In addition, sodium dodecyl sulfate-polyacrylamide gel electrophoresis under the reduced conditions showed that the isolated cryoglobulin consisted of two doublets of polypeptides with Mr values of 52,000 and 50,000, and 31,000, and 30,000, corresponding to the heavy chain and the light chain of the horse IgG molecules, respectively. These results suggest that the isolated cryoglobulin might consist of two different IgG molecules, and that the manifestations such as foot swelling with skin ulcers and renal failures were all induced by the cryoglobulin in the serum.