Autoantibodies in human ulcerative colitis.

Sera from 30 children, suffering from ulcerative colitis, were examined for the presence of antibodies capable of reacting with antigens of normal human tissue. It was possible to demonstrate that most of the sera contained a precipitating and hemagglutinating factor, reacting with a constituent of human colonic tissue. This constituent was obtained, within 1 hour after death, from colonic tissue of newborn babies who had died without feeding. It could also be prepared from fetal tissue. The antigen can be extracted with phenol-water at 65 degrees C. and seems to be a polysaccharide. The precipitating factor in the sera of the patients behaves electrophoretically as a gamma-globulin. Phenol-water extracts from liver and from kidney also reacted positively with the sera from certain patients. There are indications which suggest that the antigen obtained from these tissues is identical with that from colon. Sera from 38 healthy children did not give any reactions with the extracts used. In additional controls, the sera of 32 children with various diseases, all of suspected autoimmune origin, were also tested. A few of these reacted positively with the phenol-water extracts from the organs mentioned above. Most likely, the antigen reacting in these cases is different from that reacting with the antibodies in the sera from patients with ulcerative colitis. The possible role of the antibodies in the pathogenesis of ulcerative colitis and the mechanism of their formation are discussed.