The present study compared directly the ability of precipitating and nonprecipitating antibodies to form and sustain glomerular immune deposits. The antigen phenylated gelatin (DNP-GL) was injected i.v. into rats. DNP-GL is cleared from the circulation rapidly and becomes localized in glomeruli. Two hours later, rats received either precipitating or nonprecipitating mouse monoclonal anti-DNP antibodies. These antibodies were comparable with respect to size, affinity, number of antigen combining sites and isoelectric point. However, in vitro, nonprecipitating antibodies demonstrated a faster dissociation rate from antigen than precipitating antibodies. Control rats received DNP-GL alone or antibody alone. Antibody deposition in glomeruli was quantitated by Computerized Image Analysis (CIA) of immunoperoxidase stained tissue sections and by glomerular radioactive counts in experiments using 125I labelled antibodies. We demonstrated that glomerular uptake of anti-DNP antibody was similar two hours after injection of precipitating and nonprecipitating antibodies. However, six or more hours after injection, significantly less antibody was present in the glomeruli of rats injected with nonprecipitating antibodies. These differences could not be explained by a greater rate of antigen removal from kidney in rats injected with nonprecipitating antibodies. To assess whether nonprecipitating antibodies modify the glomerular binding and retention of precipitating antibody, in a separate series of experiments rats were injected with equal amounts of precipitating and nonprecipitating antibodies. Both types of antibody bound to glomeruli. However, with time glomerular antibody levels paralleled those found in rats injected with nonprecipitating antibody alone. We conclude that the precipitating characteristics of antibodies do not affect their ability to deposit in kidney.(ABSTRACT TRUNCATED AT 250 WORDS)