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Biomedical subjects

D Doniach

Publications and source records attributed to D Doniach.

At least 91 records · Page 5Linked to original sources
PubMed1976

A membrane-associated autoantibody in a case of myasthenia gravis with chronic hepatitis.

A new antibody reacting with a cell membrane-related antigen is described in a patient with myasthenia gravis and chronic liver disease. The antibody gave a striking peripheral immunofluorescence in all cells tested and did not react with smooth muscle fibres, being distinct from anti-actin and anti-myosin antibodies. The antigen was widely distributed in human and animal tissues. The exact relationship of this antibody to the clinical condition is not obvious but its presence is further evidence of widespread disturbances of humoral immunity in myasthenia gravis.

Autoantibodies↗
PubMed1975

Possible stimulation of thermogenesis in brown adipose tissue by thyroid-stimulating hormone.

It is suggested that in addition to stimulating the thyroid gland (i.e., the main regulator of metabolic-rate in adults) thyroid-stimulating hormone (T.S.H.) stimulates the second thermoregulatory organ (i.e., the brown adipose tissue). Brown fat functions as a thermogenic organ in hibernating animals, in newborn infants, and during cold acclimatisation. However, B.F. may persist in childhood and in some adults. Its hypertrophy in response to T.S.H. could account for certain unexplained features of myxoedema in which serum-T.S.H. is raised, such as swelling of the supraclavicular fat pad and the less commonly encountered symptoms of ascites or pericardial and pleural serous effusions which can persist for years in undiagnosed cases and respond rapidly to thyroxine when serum-T.S.H. returns to normal. Lack of thyroxine is not the cause of these features since they are not found in pituitary myxoedema, where thyroid hormone levels are as low but T.S.H. is absent.

Adaptation, Physiological↗
PubMed1975

Autoantibodies to prolactin-secreting cells of human pituitary.

A new autoantibody which reacted with anterior-pituitary tissue was deteected by immunofluorescent staining. Of 287 patients having one or more autoimmune endocrine diseases, sera from 19 reacted with pituitary glands obtained at hypophysectomy for breast cancer. Using specific rabbit antibodies to each of the six pituitary hormones and rhodamine-labelled goat-anti-rabbit-immunoglobulin (Ig) followed on the same unfixed cryostat section by a patients's serum counterstained with fluorescein-conjugated sheep-anti-human-Ig, it was posssible to show that the autoantibodies reacted specifically with the hypertrophied prolactin cells in these glands. The antibodies, belonging to the 3 main Ig classes, were complement fixing, with titres varying from 1 to 80. Double staining of prolactin cells and analogy with other autoimmune systems suggested that the antigen is in cytoplasmic organelles involved in the synthesis or delivery of the hormone. No pituitary antibodies were found in panhypopituitary cases, but there are indications that antibodies to other pituitary cells exist in some sera and that an autoimmune process may account for some cases of isolated pituitary hormone defects occurring in adult life.

Adolescent↗
PubMed1975

Autoimmune factors in African cirrhosis. Correlation with hepatitis B surface antigen and antibody.

Sera were tested for autoantibodies in 98 patients with cryptogenic cirrhosis in Uganda and results correlated with serological tests for hepatitis B surface antigen (HBs Ag) and antibody to HBs Ag (HBs Ab). Smooth muscle antibodies (SMA) were detected in 23 (24%) of the patients but there was no difference in the incidence of SMA between HBs Ag-positive and negative cases. Antinuclear antibodies (ANA) were detected in five cases; mitochondrial, gastric and thyroid antibodies were not found in any patient. Unlike other geographical locations autoimmune mechanisms appear to play little part in the progression of chronic liver disease in Uganda Africans. Hepatitis B surface antigen was present in 36 (37%) and HBs Ab in 47 (48%) of the patients. Although evidence for past exposure to hepatitis B virus (as shown by detection of HBs Ab) was present in at least 30 out of the 62 HBs Ag-negative cases, there was no greater incidence of autoantibodies in HBs Ag-negative patients with or without HBs Ab. Persistent infection with hepatitis B virus and continuing liver damage may be an important factor but these results do not favor a role for the virus in causing chronic liver disease by triggering off an autoimmune reaction.

Antibodies, Antinuclear↗
PubMed1974

Alpha-chain disease with pulmonary manifestations.

A case of alpha-chain disease of the pulmonary type is described in a man presenting with dyspnoea, mottling on chest x-ray picture, and a CO-transfer factor of 36%, suggestive of fibrosing alveolitis. The serum IgA consisted entirely of abnormal alpha chains devoid of light chains. This protein had the unusual property of reacting by immunofluorescence with rat mitochondria but not with human issues or with those of other species. Postmortem examination showed enlarged mediastinal lymph nodes with no evidence of malignancy or fibrosing alveolitis.

Aged↗
PubMed1974

Hepatic disorders associated with liver-kidney microsomal antibodies.

A study of the clinical associations of a recently defined tissue autoantibody, the liver/kidney microsomal (L.K.M.) antibody, showed that out of 33 patients 26 had clinical liver disease. Fifteen of the patients had active chronic hepatitis and there were seven cases of acute hepatitis, precipitated by presumed virus A infection in three instances and by drug hypersensitivity in the other four. The remaining cases with liver disease included two with subclinical hepatitis and two with hepatocellular carcinoma. Evidence is presented that the patients with active chronic hepatitis may represent a distinct subgroup of the disease with a young mean age, an even male to female ratio, and a striking lack of other nonorgan-specific autoantibodies-that is, antinuclear and smooth muscle-which are usually present in the other autoimmune variant of the disease.

Adolescent↗