Antibody Response to Non-Streptococcal Antigens as Related to Rheumatic Fever Susceptibility 1

Agglutinins and Incomplete Antibodies after a Single Antigenic Inoculation in Normal and Rheumatic Individuals

“…Miller, Kibrick, and Massell (1953) found in rheumatic subjects only a slight elevation of titres after immunization in comparison with controls. They inferred that rheumatic fever cannot be explained by hyperreactivity.…”

“…A number of communications show that incomplete antibodies are an important factor in the origin of allergic diseases (Coca and Grove, 1925;Miller and Campbell, 1947;Campbell and others, 1950;Sherman and others, 1950;Manack, 1951;Kuhns and Pappenheimer, 1952). Allergy has for a long time been suspected of partaking in the development of rheumatism.…”

“…Other authors have shown the importance of incomplete antibodies in allergy (Coca and Grove, 1925;Miller and Campbell, 1947;Campbell and others, 1950;Sherman and others, 1950;Marrack, 1951;Kuhns and Pappenheimer, 1952); many regard allergy as a pre-eminent factor in the development of rheumatism (Weintraud, 1913; Klinge, 1933;Talalajew, 1933Talalajew, , 1936Rossle, 1933;Albertini and Grumbach, 1933;Alpern, 1934;Aikawa, 1945).…”

Incidence of Rheumatic Fever in Relation to Immunologic Reactivity

“…A number of authors have already suggested that this predisposition might consist in a certain exceptional reactivity or hypersensitivity of the affected subjects (Evans, 1947). This condition has up to now been sought in the field of immunology and demonstrated with more or less success (Creger, Choy, and Rantz, 1951;Miller, Kibrick, and Massell, 1953;Quinn, Seastone, and Dickie, 1953;Kuhns and McCarty, 1954;Aikawa, 1954). The clear-cut results of our previous research concerning the presence of incomplete antibody in subjects with a past history of rheumatism (Wagner and Rejholec, 1955;Padovcova, Rejholec, Suda, Mali, and Wagner, 1956) seem to suggest that the methods developed for detecting incomplete antibody produced by an impulse other than streptococcal impulse offer an appropriate procedure for determining this reactivity.…”

The Response of Rheumatic and Non-Rheumatic Children to Streptolysin O Concentrate 1

“…There are exceptions, but, if rheumatics are considered as a group, this observation seems to hold true and it has led to an assumption that rheumatic individuals, that is, those who acquire rheumatic fever or are especially susceptible because one or both parents, a sibling or near relative has had rheumatic fever, respond in a different manner to streptococcal infections than non-rheumatic persons. The response of rheumatic and non-rheumatic subjects to antigenic stimuli has been the objective of several recent investigations (8)(9)(10)(11) none of which has shown any significant differences between rheumatics and non-rheumatics in their response to a variety of non-streptococcal antigens with the exception that when a strain of Brucella abortus was used as the antigen (12,13) rheumatic subjects developed higher levels of agglutinins and incomplete antibodies than normal persons. However, the more crucial question would seem to be: "Do rheumatics respond differently to streptococcal infections or antigens than non-rheumatics ?"…”