Occurrence of Complement-Fixing Antibodies Reactive With Normal Tissue Constituents in Normal and Disease States*

Comparative immunological studies in liver diseases

“…In agreement with the data in the literature (Eaton et al, 1944;Findlay et al, 1944;Olitzki and Bernkopf, 1945;Miles, 1946;Bj0rneboe and Krag, 1947;Schneider and Hogeboom, 1950;Scheiffarth and Berg, 1950;Vorlaender, 1952;Scheiffarth et al, 1955;Vorlaender, 1955;Rissel et al, 1957;Gajdusek, 1958;Mackay, 1958;Mackay and Gajdusek, 1958;Dausset and Marchal, 1959;Muschel et al, 1961;Dobias, 1963a and b;Sz6csey et al, 1963;Bouchier et al, 1964;Kuhn ard Weinreich, 1964;Szdcsey et al, 1964;Wiedermann et al, 1964), our results have shown that in certain disease of the liver serum factors of autoantibody nature may be produced, and can be demonstrated in those conditions associated with a significant lesion in the parenchyma.…”

“…It is known that in the various diseases of the liver factors with the properties of antibody reacting with liver tissue can be demonstrated in serum, and they were first demonstrated in hepatitis, in the different forms of cirrhosis of the liver, and in visceral lupus erythematosus by the complement-fixation test (Eaton, Murphy, and Hanford, 1944;Findlay, Martin, and Mitchell, 1944;Miles, 1946;Bj0rneboe and Krag, 1947;Gajdusek, 1958;Mackay, 1958;Mackay and Gajdusek, 1958;Muschel, Simonton, Wells, and Fife, 1961;Wiedermann, Doemer, and Miescher, 1964), by the precipitation test (Olitzki and Bernkopf, 1945;Scheiffarth and Berg, 1950;Vorlaender, 1952;Scheiffarth, Frenger, and Brichzy, 1955;Vorlaender, 1955), as well as by the antihuman globulin consumption test (Rissel, Steffen, and Wewalka, 1957;Dausset and Marchal, 1959;Wiedermann et al, 1964). The antibodies active against the nuclei of cells could also be demonstrated by immunocytochemical methods (Kuhn and Weinreich, 1964;Bouchier, Rhodes, and Sherlock, 1964) in chronic diseases of the liver.…”

False Positive Reactions in Treponemal Tests

“…In view of the demonstration by Muschel, Simonton, Wells, and Fife (1961) of complement-fixing tissue antibodies against rabbit liver homogenates in 74 per cent. of normal humans and the development of enhanced levels of these antibodies in patients with systemic lupus erythematosus and syphilis, the failure to demonstrate immobilization or fluorescence of T. palliduni mediated by testicular antigen and human antibody was somewhat surprising.…”

Suppression of Cell-Mediated Immunity in Experimental African Trypanosomiasis

“…Aberrations in the immunological responses of animals infected with the pathogenic African trypanosomes have been reported. These include the demonstration of autoantibodies to normal tissue antigens (22,27,33), a rise in heterophile agglutinins and rheumatoid factorlike antibodies (14,17), grossly elevated levels of nonparasite-specific immunoglobulin M (25,28,31), elevated C-reactive protein levels (34), and the possible occurrence of immune complex disease (9,11,23) in experimentally infected animals. Furthermore, lower levels of specific antibody occur subsequent to immunization with sheep erythrocytes in trypanosomeinfected animals than in normals (10); a suppression of experimental allergic neuritis is seen in trypanosome-infected rabbits (2); and increased susceptibility to secondary infection has been noted in infected humans (9, 10).…”