Immunology and Immunopathology of the Intestines: Experimental Immune Complex Disease of the Intestine

Abstract
The effect of immune complex deposition in intestine was studied in a mercuric chloride-induced experimental autoimmune disease model in the Brown Norway rat. Whereas deposition of autoantibodies in a linear pattern along the basement membrane did not lead to any functional changes, presence of immune complexes along the intestinal basement membrane, occurring after week 35 of the experiment, was associated with intestinal protein loss.