Serum Concentration of Circulating Immune Complexes in Cats Infected with Feline Immunodeficiency Virus Detected by Immune Adherence Hemagglutination Method

Abstract

Circulating immune complexes (CIC) in the sera from 45 clinically healthy cats and 23 feline immunodeficiency virus (FIV) infected cats were measured by an immune adherence hemagglutination (IAHA) method. The level of CIC in the sera from FIV sera-negative healthy cats was 47.2 ± 47.3 μg/ml when expressed as heat aggregated feline IgG equivalent value in IAHA reactivity. On the other hand, the level of CIC in the sera from FIV infected cats was 757.4 ± 910.5 μg/ml, which was significantly higher than that of healthy ones. CIC levels of 11 symptomatic cats and 12 asymptomatic ones were 837.8 ± 1138.2 μg/ml and 683.0 ± 684.2 μg/ml, respectively. These results showed that IAHA method was reliable to detect CIC levels of cat sera and that CIC levels in the sera of cats infected with FIV were higher than those of healthy ones.