A cause of potentially devastating pathologies, cryoglobulins are immunoglobulin complexes that precipitate out of serum at temperatures lower than 37°C. They often arise secondary to underlying conditions, such as hepatitis infections, although may be idiopathic. Brouet et al 1 classified cryoglobulins according to their immunoglobulin composition: type I (monoclonal), type II (mixed with monoclonal rheumatoid factor (RF)) and type III (mixed with polyclonal RF). Detection of cryoglobulins has not changed in decades and as a multistep process, is fraught with problems and a lack of universal standardisation to preanalytic handling. Currently, electrophoresis and immunofixation methods are used to characterise cryoglobulins. These techniques are unable to resolve and track specific clonotypes which can mutate and change pathogenicity over time. Mass spectrometry (MS) may be used to molecularly type IgM RFs in cryoglobulins.2 Using an MS-based proteomic approach, we recently identified the immunoglobulin heavy chain variable region (IGHV) subfamilies and mutational …

中文翻译：

---

通过质谱法对冷球蛋白进行分子分型

冷球蛋白是一种免疫球蛋白复合物，会在低于 37°C 的温度下从血清中沉淀出来，这是潜在的破坏性病理的原因。它们通常继发于潜在疾病，例如肝炎感染，尽管可能是特发性的。Brouet 等人 1 根据其免疫球蛋白组成将冷球蛋白分类：I 型（单克隆）、II 型（与单克隆类风湿因子 (RF) 混合）和 III 型（与多克隆 RF 混合）。冷球蛋白的检测几十年来一直没有改变，作为一个多步骤的过程，它充满了问题，并且缺乏对分析前处理的通用标准化。目前，电泳和免疫固定方法用于表征冷球蛋白。这些技术无法解析和追踪特定的克隆型，这些克隆型会随着时间的推移发生突变和改变致病性。