Diffusion control of the binding of carcinoembryonic antigen (CEA) with insoluble anti-CEA antibody.

ABSTRACT

Analysis of the kinetics of CEA binding to rabbit anti-CEA antibody insolubilized on filter paper discs provided six lines of evidence indicating diffusion control of this reaction 1) The observed forward rate constant, k1obs, decreased when solvent viscosity was increased with sucrose or Ficoll. 2) k1obs per receptor site increased from 1.2 x 10(4) M-1 sec-1 to 2.6 x 10(4) M-1 sec-1 as receptor site density on immunosorbent discs decreased from 5.2 x 10(-13) to 2.1 x 10(-13) moles/disc. 3) Stirring the reacting mixture of CEA and insoluble anti-CEA increased k1obs from 1.2 x 10(4) M-1 sec-1 to 3.4 x 10(4) M-1 sec-1. 4) The activation energy for CEA-insoluble anti-CEA binding was indistinguishable (p greater than 0.1 by t-test) from 4.1 Kcal/mole expected for diffusion controlled reactions. 5) Bimolecular reaction theory predicted a diffusion limited forward rate constant, k1max, for CEA binding to insoluble anti-CEA, which was consistent with our observed k1 of 1.2 x 10(4) M-1 sec-1. 6) k1obs for CEA binding to soluble rabbit anti-CEA antibody was 6.4 x 10(4) M-1 sec-1, 5 times faster than the k1obs of the heterogeneous phase reaction for receptor site density of 5.2 x 10(-13) moles/disc. Diffusion control of ligand binding to insoluble receptors, as exemplified by the CEA-insoluble anti-CEA model system, may be a very general biologic phenomenon.