Cell-mediated immunity to proteoglycan antigens was assessed by leucocyte migration inhibition and by lymphocyte stimulation tests in patients with rheumatoid arthritis or with ankylosing spondylarthritis, in patients with relapsing synovitis after a single trauma to their knee joints, and in healthy donors. Both tests revealed a sensitization in most of the patients examined with various proteoglycan antigens derived from human cartilaginous tissues, rheumatoid synovial fluid, and species-common antigen of bovine nasal cartilage. Antibodies against proteoglycan antigens of human articular cartilage were detected by solid-phase radioimmunoassay in eleven out of twenty-nine sera from patients with rheumatoid arthritis and in four out of six rheumatoid synovial fluids. The results suggest that the cartilage antigenic components released by an inflammatory process or trauma may trigger a vicious circle of chronic inflammation and joint destruction.

No abstract

It is well known that treatment with Bordetella pertussis vaccine (BPV increases the sensitivity of rats to histamine, 5hydroxytryptamine (5-HT) and anaphylactic shock (10, 15). The development and the severity of allergic and anaphylactic responses are considerably influenced by alteration in the carbohydrate metabolism (i, 3, 17). In rats the administration of BPV) results in a decrease of blood sugar (3, 6, 12) and in an inhibition of epinephrine induced hyperglycaemia (6, 12) both of which are probably connected with the development of a hypersensitive state. The diminished hyperglycaemic response may be explained, at least in part, by the presence of hyperinsulinism (6), and by the fact that epinephrine increases the insulin levels in BPV-treated, fasted rats as opposed to its normal action in untreated controls (6,19).In the present work the effect of BPV on the insulin response to various agents has been studied and an elevated activity of insulin secretion mechanism was found following BPV-treatment. METHODSWistar female rats (150-200 g) received standard diet and drinking water ad libitum and in all cases were fasted for 18 hours prior to plasma insulin examinations. BPV was administered i.p. in a single dose of 3 X 10^° organisms 4 days before insulin determinations. Blood samples were taken from the right carotic artery before and 30 min. after administration of catecholamines-epine-

No abstract

Intravascular fibrin formation could not be detected in various phase of IgE mediated anaphylactic shock of rats, either by using an isotope technique or testing the plasma samples by the ethanol gelation test.