Mechnikov Research Institute for Vaccines and Sera,Moscow, Russia
Cryptogenic fibrosing alveolitis (CFA) is a severe autoimmune disease of unclear etiology and prognostically unfavorable. The complexity of the diagnostics of this disease makes it necessary to search for new methods; for this reason immunity in CFA patients must be studied. The study of humoral organ-specific, organ-unspecific and antibacterial immunity of CFA patients revealed that the latter differed from the members of the groups used for comparison by a higher frequency of positive reactions in EIA determinations of IgG antibodies to cytokeratin-8 and Moraxella catarrhalis antigens. In addition, only in CFA patients a high degree of correlation (r=0.88) between these results was established. This made it possible to propose to use these reactions for confirming the diagnosis of CFA and suggested the probable role of M.catarrhalis in triggering autoimmune reactions characteristic of this disease.
Zh. Mikrobiol. (Moscow), 2004, No. 5, P. 76—80