Heterophilic antibodies to connective tissue antigens in the blood sera of rheumatic patients do not cross-react with group AStreptococcus antigens

Heterophilic antibodies reacting with antigens of interstitial connective tissue of bovine myocardium were found in the sera of patients with rheumatic fever. These antibodies were referred to class IgG. Immunologic specificity of the reaction with these antigens was confirmed in experiments with F(ab′)₂ fragments from IgG isolated from the sera of rheumatic patients. Heterophilic antibodies were not adsorbed by various antigens of group AStreptococcus, nor were they isolated in a column with immunosorbent prepared on the basis of nontype-specific streptococcal antigens. The reaction of patients' sera was not inhibited by monoclonal antibodies to nontype-specific antigens cross-reacting with antigens of myocardial interstitial connective tisSue. Translated fromByulleten' Eksperimental'noi Biologii i Meditsiny, Vol. 117, N ^o 6, pp. 642–644, June, 1994 Presented by S. V. Prozorovskii, Member of the Russian Academy of Medical Sciences