Proteolysis of purified IgGs by human and bacterial enzymes in vitro and the detection of specific proteolytic fragments of endogenous IgG in rheumatoid synovial fluid
A comparative in vitro survey of physiologically relevant human and microbial proteinases defined a number of enzymes that induced specific hinge domain cleavage in human IgG1. Several of these proteinases have been associated with tumor growth, inflammation, and infection. A majority of the identified proteinases converted IgG to F(ab')(2), and a consistent feature of their action was a transient