title: Occurrence of deficient monocyte yeast cell phagocytosis in presence of rheumatic sera.
abstract: Monocyte yeast cell phagocytosis was studied in 164 rheumatic sera. The results showed that the phagocytic activity (PA) was low in 51 per cent of SLE-sera, in 12 per cent of other connective tissue disease (CTD)-sera, in 16 percent of RA-sera but in none of 30 sera from patients with other chronic arthritides. Low PA was associated with cryoglobulinaemia and subnormal C1q, C4 and C3 in the SLE-group and with subnormal C4 and signs of extra-articular disease in the RA-group. In the CTD-group, low PA was only found in 4 cases of SLE-like syndromes, all having evidence of vasculitis. The findings suggest that low phagocytic activity in presence of rheumatic sera may be related to clinical syndromes with circulating immune complexes and/or hypocomplementaemia, most often SLE.
mesh_terms: D001168:Arthritis / Q000276:immunology; D001172:Arthritis, Rheumatoid / Q000276:immunology; D002478:Cells, Cultured; D003240:Connective Tissue Diseases / Q000276:immunology; D005260:Female; D006801:Humans; D007158:Immunologic Techniques; D008180:Lupus Erythematosus, Systemic / Q000276:immunology; D008297:Male; D009000:Monocytes / Q000276:immunology*; D010587:Phagocytosis; D012216:Rheumatic Diseases / Q000276:immunology*; D012441:Saccharomyces cerevisiae