Biomedical subjects

S Whittingham

Publications and source records attributed to S Whittingham.

At least 91 records · Page 5Linked to original sources

PubMed1975

HL-A8: a genetic link with thyrotoxicosis.

The incidence of HL-A8 was significantly increased in 64 Caucasian patients with thyrotoxicosis compared with 700 Australian blood donors (42% versus 24%). No significant correlation was observed between HL-A8 and autoantibodies to thyroid components in thyrotoxic patients; thus the association of HL-A8 must be either with the disease itself, or possibly with immune responses not tested for this study.

Autoantibodies↗

PubMed1975

Antigen-binding cells in human fetal liver.

Antigen-binding cells (ABC) could be detected regularly by autoradiography among haemic cells in the liver of human fetuses ranging in age from 8 to 24 weeks. For radioiodine-labeled thyroglobulin, the antigen mainly used in these studies, counts of ABC ranged from 5.0 to 24.3 per 1,000 cells scanned. There was a trend for counts of ABC in liver to be highest at 10-12 weeks of fetal life. Binding of labeled thyroglobulin was inhibited by excess unlabeled thyroglobulin, but not by other protein antigens. Artifacts due to binding of antigen to normoblasts, which comprised 90% of the haemic cells in fetal lines, and to cells with 'sticky' surfaces were excluded as far as possible. There was no response by fetal liver cells to phytohaemagglutinin. Although there was only minimal inhibition of binding by anti-immunoglobulin sera of known potency, the ABC in human fetal liver were assumed to correspond to immunoglobulin-bearing precursors of B cells described by others in the liver of the fetal mouse.

Antigens↗

PubMed1975

Thyrogastric autoimmune disease. Studies on the cell-mediated immune system and histocompatibility antigens.

Cell-mediated immune responses were studied in autoimmune diseases of thyrogastric type, Hashimoto's thyroiditis and autoimmune pernicious anaemia-type gastritis. Specific cell-mediated immunity was investigated by the leucocyte migration inhibition procedure, and general cell-mediated immunity (T-cell performance) was studied by standard in vivo and in vitro tests. In thyrogastric autoimmune diseases inhibition of migration of leucocytes was induced by thyroglobulin and gastric parietal cell microsomes; under conditions of presumably low cellular sensitization, stimulation of migration was observed. There was no depression of general cell-mediated immunity, in contrast to what occurs in systemic lupus erythematosus and related autoimmune diseases. A weak association of autoimmune gastritis with HL-A3 and HL-A7 (P LESS THAN 0.05) lost significance when an appropriate correction was applied; this weakness with HL-A clearly does not explain the strong genetic component in thyroid and gastric autoimmunity.

Anemia, Pernicious↗

PubMed1975

Populations of lymphocytes separated from human thymocytes.

Thymocytes from twenty-two human foetal and post-natal thymuses were separated according to their buoyant density. Thymocytes from eight were separated into multiple fractions by means of continuous gradients of bovine serum albumin (BSA), pH 5.1 and iso-osmolar with human cells, and thymocytes from fourteen were separated into two fractions of density less than and greater than 1.068 g/cm3. Fractions were tested for antigen-binding lymphocytes (ABL) to 125I-labelled human thyroglobulin, for response to phytohaemagglutinin (PHA) and for rosette-forming cells (RFC) using sheep red blood cells. For subjects of all ages there was a pronounced enrichment of both ABL and thymocytes responsive to PHA amoung low or 1.064-1.065 g/cm3 density thymocytes. In older subjects there was a second enrichment of ABL among high or 1.072-1.073 g/cm3 density thymocytes. RFC were distributed over a wider range of densities, and although they did not form a discrete subpopulation they predominated among high density thymocytes.

Cell Separation↗

PubMed1974