Chest
Immune Complexes in Sarcoidosis: A Correlation with Activity and Duration of Disease
Section snippets
Subjects
Samples of serum from patients and control subjects were obtained from peripheral venous blood and were kept at −20°C or −70°C until tested. In all patients the diagnosis of sarcoidosis was based on clinical findings supplemented by biopsy of either skin or lymph node. Classification of the stage of the disease was in accord with the following standard criteria: stage 1, hilar adenopathy without parenchymal infiltrates; stage 2, hilar adenopathy associated with pulmonary parenchymal
Methodologic Considerations
The results of this study confirm previous observations3 that the Raji cell line, may be used to detect immune complexes by a fluorescent technique; however, as observed,3 it was first necessary to block the Fc receptor of the Raji cell line to prevent passive absorption of IgG, which results in unacceptably high background fluorescence. Prior incubation of Raji cells with human IgG, followed by treatment with F (ab') 2 fragments to human IgG, eliminated background fluorescence. Specific
Discussion
We7 have previously shown that some patients with acute disease have cold-reactive autoantibodies to lymphocytes. In the present study, four of the five patients whose sera contained cytotoxic autoantibodies to lymphocytes also had immune complexes. This raises the possibility that the immune complexes in these patients may actually represent antibodies directed to determinants of the Raji cell line; however, several lines of evidence argue against this possibility. First, in these patients,
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Manuscript received December 20; revision accepted February 9.
Supported by Specialized Center of Research grant HL-15061 from the National Heart and Lung Institute.