title: Purification and partial characterization of hepatitis e antigen (HBeAg).
abstract: Purification of hepatitis e antigen (HBeAg) from 200 ml of chimpanzee plasma was accomplished by a combination of ion-exchange chromatography on diethylaminoethyl-cellulose followed by gel filtration. High-resolution sodium dodecyl sulfate-polyacrylamide gel electrophoresis of purified HBeAg demonstrated two major polypeptides with estimated molecular weights of 22,000 and 55,000. HBeAg labeled with 125I showed a high affinity for protein A-conjugated Sepharose CL-4B. The precipitation reaction between HBeAg and anti-HBe was inhibited by preincubating the purified antigen with rabbit anti-human immunoglobulin G (IgG). These data show that HBeAg is associated with  a serum fraction with the biophysical and antigenic properties of an immunoblobulin of the IgG class. Sedimentation coefficient analysis of purified HbeAg resulted in an S20w value of 11.6 and a molecular weight value of 324,000. These findings, supported by gel filitration and polyacrylamide gradient gel electrophoresis, revealed that HBeAg has properties analogous to those of a dimer of IgG.
mesh_terms: D000818:Animals; D002848:Chromatography, DEAE-Cellulose; D002850:Chromatography, Gel; D002852:Chromatography, Ion Exchange; D004591:Electrophoresis, Polyacrylamide Gel; D000939:Epitopes; D006511:Hepatitis B Antigens / Q000302:isolation & purification*; D005779:Immunodiffusion; D007122:Immunoelectrophoresis; D007074:Immunoglobulin G; D002679:Pan troglodytes
chemical_list: D000939:Epitopes; D006511:Hepatitis B Antigens; D007074:Immunoglobulin G