Comparison of rosetting, phagocytosis, and IgG binding assays for detection of IgG on old red cells

Various methods have been used for detecting or inferring the presence of IgG on senescent red cells. In the authors studies, they have used a method for directly measuring IgG on senescent red cells. In our studies, the authors have used a method for directly measuring IgG on cells (e.g. scanning immunoelectron microscopy) along with determining phagocytosis. Thus, phagocytosis is used as a biological assay for determining the biological significance of the IgG on cells. However, the phagocytosis assay as performed in the authors laboratory is tedious, time-consuming, and requires meticulous technique. In contrast, rosetting is a quick, simple assay that does not require special techniques or supplies. Therefore, the authors compared the phagocytosis assay employed by us to rosetting, and correlated each of these with the amount of IgG present on red cells as determined with an 125I protein A binding assay. Although senescent red cells were phagocytized, they did not form rosettes with K562 cells even at 25 RBC:K562. Further experiments indicated that the rosette assay depended on the RBC:K561 cell ratio and not on the amount of IgG/red cell. Rosette formation (%) at varying RBC:K562 ratios was as follows: 100:1, 81 +/- 12; 50:1, 65 +/- 18; 25:1, 34 +/- 30, 10:1, 20 +/- 33; 5:1, 15 +/- 29; 1: 1, 3 +/- 7 (n = 14). In contrast, phagocytosis of old RBC correlated well with the amount of IgG present on red cells (r = 0.96, 0.94, 0.92 and 0.94 in each of 4 different experiments with n = 16, 19, 14, and 19 respectively). Thus, the phagocytosis assay the authors have used correlates with IgG on red cells; whereas rosette formation does not