Article révisé par les pairs
Résumé : It is concluded that variations in the hinge region which link Fd and Fc portions of heavy chains and differences in Fc regions, contribute to the diversity of rabbit antibodies of restricted heterogeneity which may possess identical or very similar Fab regions. Whatever the origin of the heterogeneity of the constant region of H chain may be, isoelectric spectra of papain Fab fragments of restricted antibodies reflect better than the intact molecule the 'monoclonal' nature of the combining region of antibodies and should preferentially be used as a phenotypic marker of antibody producing cells.