[Autoantibodies in bronchial asthma].
We studied the difference in the prevalence of autoantibodies between the sera of atopic asthma and non-atopic asthma. The presence of antinuclear antibodies (ANA) was evaluated in the sera of 20 patients with atopic asthma, 15 with non-atopic asthma, 20 with lung cancer, and 103 control subjects (40 with other pulmonary diseases and 63 with other medical diseases), by using an indirect immunofluorescent assay with HEp-2 cells as a substrate. The incidence of positive ANA was in the sera of 4/20 patients with atopic asthma, 8/15 with non-atopic asthma, 6/20 with lung cancer and 12/103 with control subjects, respectively. The incidence of positive ANA was found to be significantly higher in non-atopic asthma than in atopic asthma regardless of age or sex. One hypothesis is as follows. In non-atopic asthma, viral airway infection, as well as chronic eosinophilic inflammation of the airways, may cause some trouble in the impaired lymphocyte surveillance and may be especially liable to develop autoantibodies under those circumstances.
Fujimori
K
K
Department of Internal Medicine, Niigata Prefectural Shibata Hospital.
Suzuki
E
E
Arakawa
M
M
D000328:Adult; D000368:Aged; D000369:Aged, 80 and over; D000974:Antibodies, Antinuclear / Q000032:analysis*; D001249:Asthma / Q000276:immunology*; D005260:Female; D006801:Humans; D008297:Male; D008875:Middle Aged
D000974:Antibodies, Antinuclear