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The immunoglobulin hinge (Interdomain) region

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Ricerca in clinica e in laboratorio

Summary

The hinge region is a flexible amino acid stretch in the central part of the heavy chains of the IgG and IgA immunoglobulin classes, which links these 2 chains by disulfide bonds. It is rich in cysteine and proline amino acids, extremely variable in amino acid sequence, and has no resemblance to any other immunoglobulin region. The hinges in these 2 classes are compared and contrasted. Such a distinct molecular structure does not exist around the inter-heavy disulfide bonds of the other Ig classes, but a portion of the IgM heavy chain has similar properties to the γ hinge. This similarity suggests one hypothesis for the genetic origin of the hinge region; data supporting 2 other hypotheses are also presented.

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  1. Department of Medicine, Albert Einstein College of Medicine of Yeshiva University, 1300 Morris Park Avenue, 10461, Bronx, N.Y., USA

    Jay B. Adlersberg

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  1. Jay B. Adlersberg
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Abbreviations used: nomenclature of immunoglobulins, their chains and fragments follows the recommendation of the World Health Organization, Bull. Wld Hlth Org. 30, 477, 1964; 33, 721, 1965; 35, 953, 1966; 38, 151, 1968. Heavy Chain Disease and myeloma proteins are designated by the first 3 letters of the patient’s name. Amino acid nomenclature conforms to that suggested by the IUPAC-IUB Commission on Biochemical Nomenclature.

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Adlersberg, J.B. The immunoglobulin hinge (Interdomain) region. La Ricerca in Clin. Lab. 6, 191 (1976). https://doi.org/10.1007/BF02899970

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