Medical Condition:
Heavy Chain Immunoglobulins
Major components of immunoglobulin molecules. They are the larger of the two types of polypeptide chains responsible for the biological and immunological properties of the different immunoglobulins. They differ according to the class of Ig from which they were isolated, contain 450 to 600 amino acid residues per chain, and have molecular weights of 51-72 kD. One Ig molecule comprises two heavy and two light chains.