Tropical hypergammaglobulinaemia and tissue antibodies

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Abstract
804 hypergammaglobulinaemic sera from indigenous New Guineans were tested for auto-immune complement fixation with saline extracts of human liver and kidney. 30 sera gave titres exceeding 1 in 5 and 22 of these sera had gamma-globulin levels exceeding 1·50 g. per 100 ml. A possible reason for this finding may be the action of environmentally induced stresses leading to chronic tissue destruction (such as liver damage arising from malnutrition and malaria) and the heightened capacity for immune response which may result from the high antigenic load carried by tropical peoples.