Anti-albumin antibodies in sera of patients with liver disease.

We used passive haemagglutination assay to examine sera from 77 patients with various liver diseases for the presence of antibodies to human serum albumin (HSA), bovine serum albumin (BSA) ans ovalbumin (OA). The antibody titre to BSA was higher than that to OA or HSA. Of the examined diseases, in chronic active hepatitis and liver cirrhosis, the titre and incidence of anti-BSA antibody were highest. There was a positive correlation between anti-BSA antibody and serum gamma-globulin level. Sephadex G-200 column chromatography and immunoelectrophoresis revealed that the anti-BSA antibody belonged to the IgM class.