IMMUNOFLUORESCENT PATTERNS IN IDIOPATHIC INTERSTITIAL PNEUMONIAS

  • 1 January 1978
    • journal article
    • research article
    • Vol. 91  (6) , 929-938
Abstract
Immunologic mechanisms were implicated in the pathogenesis of idiopathic interstitial pneumonia [IIP]. Thirty-five patients with IIP were divided into 3 groups: group I, 7 subjects with desquamative interstitial pneumonia (DIP); group II, 13 with usual interstitial pneumonia (UIP), and group III, 15 with mural fibrosis. Lung biopsies were exposed to fluorescein-conjugated antisera to Ig[immunoglobulin]G, IgA, IgE, IgM, C3 [3rd component of complement], fibrinogen and albumin. In group I, all patients demonstrated IgG and C3 in a granular pattern lining alveolar walls. Similarly, in group II, all had IgG and 10 had C3 within alveolar walls. In contrast, only 2 group III subjects demonstrated IgG and none C3. Only 1 of 19 control subjects had alveolar wall Ig and C3 deposition. The incidence of positive rheumatoid and antinuclear factors was similar in all 3 study groups. Immune complex deposition may play a role in the pathogenesis of the cellular interstitial pneumonias and once mural fibrosis supervenes, these complexes are no longer present.