title: Autoantibody against B lymphocytes.
abstract: The sera of 20 out of 99 (20%) normal males and females were shown to have antibodies that kill their own B lymphocytes. The sera were specifically cytotoxic to B lymphocytes and not T lymphocytes. Allogeneic B lymphocytes were also killed by these autocytotoxins. Maximum killing of B lymphocytes occurred when the incubation temperature in serum was 5 degrees C and complement incubation temperature was 20 degrees C. Under these cold conditions, some sera reacted up to a dilution of 1/16. These results suggest that positive B-lymphocyte crossmatches found in kidney transplantation do not detect alloantibodies. Since the B-cell autoantibodies tend to appear at the time of immunisation, their role as autoregulators of the antibody response is an intriguing possibility.
mesh_terms: D001323:Autoantibodies / Q000302:isolation & purification*; D001402:B-Lymphocytes / Q000276:immunology*; D003080:Cold Temperature; D003601:Cytotoxicity Tests, Immunologic; D005260:Female; D006650:Histocompatibility Testing; D006801:Humans; D007518:Isoantibodies / Q000302:isolation & purification; D016030:Kidney Transplantation; D008297:Male; D013696:Temperature
chemical_list: D001323:Autoantibodies; D007518:Isoantibodies