LUNG ANTIBODIES IN PATIENTS WITH PULMONARY DISEASE

Abstract

Using a soluble lung antigen extract, complement-fixation tests were performed on 259 hospital patients. The results showed an over-all reactivity of 4.6%, thus confirming the studies of Gajdusek and of Hackett and associates. Antiglobulin-consumption and complement-consumption tests were developed and used to test serum specimens from the same group, using an insoluble antigen. The results showed that a significantly greater rate of reactivity (10:1) occurred in patients with pulmonary disease compared with those classified as having nonpulmonary disease. Among the types of patients with pulmonary disease were those diagnosed as having emphysema, asthma, and tuberculosis, as well as other chronic pulmonary diseases. These reactions were not due to lipid-lipid interactions or to a Wassermann type of reactivity. Evidence was presented to indicate that enzymatic activity on complement was not responsible for the reactions. These reactions were not due to serum globulin aggregations or interactions of serum globulins with globulins present in the tissue extracts. Antigenic analysis of the soluble and insoluble lung antigens showed the presence of at least four different antigens: (1) heat-labile, soluble; (2) trypsin-sensitive, insoluble; (3) trypsin-resistant, heat labile, insoluble; (4) trypsin-resistant, heat stable, insoluble. The reactive antigens in soluble extracts could not positively be indentified, but one of the antigenic constituents in the insoluble fraction seemed to be collagen or a collagen-like substance.