[Antineutrophil cytoplasmic antibodies in patients with diffuse diseases of connective tissue].

Aim: To investigate the significance of antibodies against neutrophil cytoplasmic antigens (ANCA) in patients with rheumatoid arthritis (RA), systemic lupus erythematosus (SLE) and systemic sclerosis (SS), their relations with the syndromes and laboratory indices.

Material And Methods: The sera from 277 patients suffering from connective tissue disease and 31 healthy persons were examined. Of patients, 103, 126 and 48 had RA, SLE and SS, respectively.

[Effect of intraperitoneal administration of Streptococcus group A and its cell fractions on the development of adjuvant arthritis in rats].

The effect produced by the intraperitoneal injection of live and heat-killed group A streptococci, the fractions of their cell walls (both intact and sonicated) and cytoplasm was studied on 450 white rats with experimental adjuvant arthritis (AA). The injection of live streptococci into rats with AA decreased the swelling of joints (by 70-80% in the second half of the experiment), reduced the titers of rheumatoid-like factor (RLF), and inhibited the development of polyarthritis. The use of heat-killed streptococci gave a less pronounced antiarthritic effect, while the fraction of streptococcal cell walls, similarly to live streptococci, decreased the swelling of joints (by 27-64%); at the same time a considerable drop in the titers of RLF was observed in 3 experiments, and the development of polyarthritis was registered in 38% of the test animals and in 62% of the control animals.

[Determination of the cytotoxic action of cell fractions of Streptococcus group A on continuous human heart cells].

The work deals with the study of the cytotoxic action of the fractions of group A streptococcal cells, type 1, on human heart cells in continuous cell cultures, carried out by the method of J. L. Middlebrook and R.

[Interaction of streptococcal L-forms and tissue culture cells].

The interaction between 2 strains of group A streptococci in L-forms and the cells of the continuous cell lines HEp, HeLa, L, GPK and PEK, as well as the cells of primary human and chick embryo cell cultures was studied under conditions of infection with different doses. In most of the cell cultures used in this study L-form of streptococci showed no pronounced cytopathic effect. They could be isolated, when using cell cultures as inoculum, from the cultivated cells of continuous cell lines during the whole period of the cultivation of the infected monolayer (6--7 days), primary human embryo cell culture up to days 8--11 and from chick embryo cell culture up to days 1--3.

[Intracytoplasmic membrane structures in the L forms of the hemolytic streptococcus].

In studying the submicroscopic structure of the L-form of streptococcus, group A, isolated from the heart tissue of rabbit there were revealed intracytoplasmic membrane structures. Ring lamellar structures were most frequently revealed in the spheroid cells with dense and loose cytoplasm. They were also found in dense cytoplasm of elementary bodies.