HETEROPHILE ANTIGEN IN SERA OF HUMAN RECIPIENTS OF RENAL-ALLOGRAFTS

It was noted that many sera of patients with renal allograft produce d istinct precipitation lines in gel diffusion tests with about 20% of i nfectious mononucleosis sera. The antibodies in infectious mononucleos is sera were of IgM isotope, but, interestingly, they could be removed by guinea pig kidney homogenate, which indicated that the reactions s tudied were of the Hanganutziu-Deicher rather than of the Paul-Bunnell type. This contention was strengthened by the fact that positive tran splantation sera reacted also with standard serum with Hanganutziu-Dei cher antibodies. Thus far, the presence of the antigen in the transpla ntation sew could not be related to the clinical status of the patient s, however, the antigen was noted primarily in those sera that did not contain heterophile transplantation antibodies, It was proposed that the antigen defected in the transplantation sera was an altered tissue antigen released from the grafted organ. Besides, interactions betwee n two serum samples from the same patient were noted in immunodiffusio n tests. These reactions occurred very seldom and were unrelated to he terophile transplantation antigens or antibodies.