Antibodies in Systemic Lupus Erythematosus and Myasthenia Gravis Which React with Thermally Denatured DNA-Coated Bentonite

Lymphocyte transformation in thymectomized and nonthymectomized patients with myasthenia gravis.

“…J., 1967, 2, 679-681 Nastuk et al (1960) and Simpson (1960) first suggested an autoimmune basis for myasthenia gravis. It is now well established that about one-third of myasthenics have circulating antibodies which cross-react with skeletal muscle and thymus Strauss et al, 1965), and that there is a high incidence of antinuclear factor (White and Marshall, 1962 ;Sturgill et al, 1964) and of antibodies directed against tissues other than skeletal muscle and thymus (Adner et al, 1964 ;Downes et al, 1966). The reported depression of serum complement level during clinical exacerbations (Nastuk et al, 1960) suggests that an antigen-antibody reaction is taking place, but so far there is no evidence that the circulating antibodies to skeletal muscle and thymus play any pathogenic part.…”

The Relation of Immunoglobulin Class, Pattern of Antinuclear Antibody, and Complement-Fixing Antibodies to DNA in Sera from Patients with Systemic Lupus Erythematosus*

“…IgG antinuclear antibodies have been found in 96%, IgM in 81%o, and IgA in 51%o of SLE sera (7). The nuclear antigens to which these antibodies are directed have been studied by a variety of techniques including complement fixation (8)(9)(10), passive hemagglutination (2), precipitation (11)(12)(13), and agglutination of bentonite particles (14,15). These studies have all shown that a variety of nuclear antigens react with various SLE sera.…”

Anti-DNA Investigated by the DNA Bentonite Flocculation Technique

“…The finding of negative reactions in the undiluted sera, but positive re actions in the same sera after dilution, has not been described previously, using this technique [4,22], A similar phenomenon has been described during the demonstration of anti-DNA by another method, the immunofluorescent technique [6]. In the present study the cause of the negative reactions in the low dilutions of serum seems to be a non-specific inhibi tory effect on the agglutination of serum, because normal sera without an ti-DNA also inhibited the reaction between an anti-DNA-containing ser um and DNA-coated bentonite particles.…”

“…In chronic liver diseases such as cryptogenic cirrhosis, lupoid hepatitis and chronic active hepatitis, which are consid ered to be auto-allergic [8], antibody to native DNA has been found in up to 50% of the cases [5,14,15]. Anti-DNA is described in very infrequent cases of other diseases [5,12,14,15,19,22]. In the present study with the DNA bentonite flocculation method antibody to DNA was found very frequently in some non-rheumatic conditions where it has been reported on rare occasions only.…”

“…Without selection to the disease activity, the frequency has been given as 39% [17]. Antibody to DNA has been found less frequently in related diseases such as Sjogren's syndrome [2,19,22], rheumatoid arthritis [2,22] and childhood scleroderma [10]. In chronic liver diseases such as cryptogenic cirrhosis, lupoid hepatitis and chronic active hepatitis, which are consid ered to be auto-allergic [8], antibody to native DNA has been found in up to 50% of the cases [5,14,15].…”