DIFFERENT CROSS-REACTING CIRCULATING IMMUNE-COMPLEXES IN BEHCETS SYNDROME AND RECURRENT ORAL ULCERS

  • 1 January 1981
    • journal article
    • research article
    • Vol. 97  (4) , 559-567
Abstract
Circulating immune complexes [CIC] were isolated by 2% polyethylene glycol precipitation from the sera of 15 out of 37 patients with Behcet''s syndrome and 11 out of 23 patients with recurrent oral ulcers. The antigenic cross-reactions of the polyethylene glycol precipitates were studied by coating a plastic tube with 1 complex and adding another 125I-labeled complex in dissociating (acid) conditions. On neutralization, partial reassembly occurred with the complex coating the tube wall, thus indicating cross-reaction with it. In the 1st 30 complexes studied, the cross-reactions obtained were sorted by computer program into 2 mutually exclusive subsets of reactions. Two similar homologous subsets of reactions were found in the 2nd group of 29 patients: in total, 9 out of 16 ocular, 4 out of 6 herpetiform CIC in 1 subset, and 4 out of 7 neurological in the other. A wider pattern of reaction could be detected in addition, which included most of the Behcet''s syndrome and recurrent oral ulcers. Immune complexes from control sera did not cross-react. An exogenous agent could account for the CIC cross-reactions for the group as a whole, and 2 antigenic determinants of that agent or antigens from different damaged tissues explain the subsets.