An "Autoimmune" Reaction Against Human Tissue Antigens in Certain Acute and Chronic Diseases

Historical reflections on autoimmune hepatitis

“…Then the case for an immunological derangement as the cause of the disease became even stronger because at the time, DC Gajdusek who was a visiting scientist to the Hall Institute was attempting to develop a diagnostic serological test for viral hepatitis based on a complement fixation (CF) reaction, using as antigen liver tissue obtained at autopsy from a patient with fatal acute viral hepatitis. However sera from cases of acute hepatitis were at most only weakly positive using this CF reaction, whereas sera from cases of CAH (inserted as disease controls) tested positive, not only using as antigen the virally infected liver tissue but also using normal liver as well [20] . We can recall that during the development of the Wassermann serological test for syphilis infection, Spirochaeta-infected tissue was used initially, but normal tissue was found to serve equally well to elicit a positive reaction.…”

A 50-year experience with autoimmune hepatitis: and where are we now?

“…Disease control sera were selected from cases of chronic active (lupoid) hepatitis and SLE. The acute hepatitis sera were at most only weakly positive whereas disease control sera tested positive, with both virus-infected liver tissue and with homogenates of normal liver and other tissues [17] (Fig. 1c).…”

“…In positive reactions, complement is utilised and cells are not lysed. a normal serum, negative; b serum from patent with ''lupoid'' CAH, positive, titre 1:2000; c serum from patient with SLE, positive, titre 1:512-1000 [17] emphasising specific clinical and laboratory features and a dire outcome [10]: characteristic biochemical tests including hypergammaglobulinemia… a histological picture which seems to indicate active chronic inflammatory changes… history of acute infectious hepatitis lacking, but little doubt liver disease due to virus infection… course was progressively downhill…jaundice became permanent …bleeding episodes frequent… the time of presentation until death has varied between six months and two years.…”

Serologic Tests for Syphilis and the False-Positive Reactor

“…8,9 In this sense lipids released from damaged cells may become autoantigens which stimulate antibody formation. Were the infectious agent of syphilis not known, the disease might be considered "auto-im¬ mune" on the basis of histologie and séro¬ logie information.…”