Autolymphocytotoxins Following Immunization by Pregnancy, Transplantation, and Disease

Abstract

Antibodies which were cytotoxic to lymphocytes were found in patients with kidney transplants, Graves' disease, Hashimoto's disease, rheumatic heart disease, and in multiparous women. These cytotoxins were 19S, optimally reactive at 15° C, were autocytotoxic to lymphocytes, and were inactive against granulocytes. The specificity of their reactivity to allogeneic lymphocytes was unrelated to HL‐A specificities. In fact, though the sera varied from 1% to 99% in reactivity against a panel of random donors, much of the variation seems to be of a quantitative nature with relatively little specificity. Out of 6,105 x 2 comparisons between 110 sera of the diseases mentioned above, 83% were positive and none of the negative x 2 values were statistically significant. It is concluded that diverse stimuli elicit the formation of these low avidity 198 antibodies which are directed against a non‐HL‐A antigen richly represented on lymphocytes. Although their biologic significance may be difficult to show, as with cold hemagglutinins, they could possibly act as a “natural” antilymphocytic serum.