[Functional activity of natural killers in viral hepatitis A].

The direct cytotoxic test with the use of C and neoplastic cells of human myeloleukemia K-562 was employed to examine the activity of natural killers (NK) in 234 patients with viral hepatitis and in 51 healthy subjects as control. It was ascertained that in viral hepatitis, the functional activity of NK was appreciably altered. At the disease onset it tended toward lowering, whereas before the recovery it consistently increased.

[Autoimmune reactions of the humoral type in viral hepatitis].

Antibodies against antigens of hepatocyte cell membranes are formed in half the patients with hepatitis A and B in one-third of those with pseudotuberculosis. They occur in the period preceding the patients' convalescence rather than in the acute stage of the disease. The recovery of hepatitis patients in whom liver antibodies formed ensued significantly more rapidly than in persons with no autoantibodies.

[Ability to redistribute surface receptors in transplantable cell lines].

The ability of cultured lymphoid, erythroid and fibroblastic cells for ligand-induced redistribution of their surface receptors proved to be lower than that of lymphocytes. The process of surface receptors redistribution can be inhibited by low temperature and sodium azide in all the cells under study. Pretreatment with trypsin increased the ability for redistribution of surface receptors in some types of cultured cells, but had no such effect on lymphocytes.