[Accelerated aging of immune system of the veterans of special risk subdivisions].

Long far after nuclear weapons tests the veterans of special risk subdivisions (SRS) had changes of humoral factors of nonspecific protection, concentration of immunoglobulins in blood serum, lymphocytes sensibleness to respiratory viruses, humoral and cellular autoimmune displacements, raise of turmonecrotic factor content. Some of the revealed changes (complement, lysocim, concentration of immunoglobulins) are bound up with elderly age of examined people and their diseases. The other changes (autoimmune displacements, sensibleness to respiratory viruses) can be bound up with nuclear weapons tests.

[Autoimmune disorders in liqvidators 11 years after the Chernobyl accident].

We studied long-lasting consequences of the low-doses irradiation on the immune system of 71 clean-up workers who participated in the emergency work after the Chernobyl Plant accident in 1986 and 25 healthy donors from Belarus. In sera of the workers the level of autoantibodies to thyroid gland antigens (thyroglobulin and microsomal fraction of thyroid gland) was increased in 48% of cases, the level of autoantibodies to lens oculis antigen was increased in 44% of cases; the level of circulating immune complexes was elevated in 55%, and the serum level of thyroglobulin in 60% of people. Immunological disorders were found without any definite clinical evidences of diseases and this allows us to consider the examined contingent as a group of risk for the development of autoimmune pathology in the future.

[Atherogenesis and the acute-phase reaction of the liver].

Data from literature are given on the role of "acute phase" proteins in inflammation and their connection with lipoproteins. Intensive production of acute phase proteins is shown to take place in modelling of experimental atherosclerosis. The hypothesis is proposed that allows to consider the acute phase reaction of the liver as a very important condition of modified lipoproteins formation acquiring autoantigenic properties.

[The role of immunological changes in diseases in regions contaminated by radionuclides after the accident at the Chernobyl Atomic Electric Power Station].

Autoimmune deviations, both humoral and cellular, related to antigens of thyroid gland, microsomes and thyroglobulin, were observed in residents of controlled districts of Bryansk and Tula regions of Russia. The importance of these deviations at hyperplasia of thyroid gland was demonstrated. In formation of cataracts under chronic influence of low doses of ionizing radiation the humoral autoimmune mechanisms are active but not the cellular ones.

[The induction of an immune response to influenza virus antigens by anti-idiotypic antibodies].

The present investigation indicate that homologous polyclonal anti-idiotypic antibodies induce both humoral and cell-mediated immune response. Experiments on the exhaustion of immune sera with vaccine have revealed that anti-idiotypic antibodies induce not only specific antibodies to influenza virus antigens, but also antibodies to other epitopes of the globulin molecule of the anti-idiotype. Anti-idiotypic antibodies, when reintroduced into animals, induce the production of anti-influenza antibodies of the anamnestic type, but do not induce the formation of antihemagglutinins.

[Anti-influenzal antibodies inducing an immune response to the influenza virus].

The injection of anti-influenza antibodies into rabbits induces a specific immune response, including the production of anti-idiotypic antibodies and then the production of immune complexes and anti-influenza antibodies. The injection of antibodies induces the development of immunological memory; as a result, the animals are primed to respond to the injection of influenza vaccine.

[The anti-idiotypic response to the experimental administration of the inactivated or live influenza virus].

The injection of inactivated and live influenza virus into rabbits induces the formation of anti-idiotypic antibodies, appearing after anti-influenza hemagglutinins, in the blood. The presence of immune complexes antibody--anti-idiotypic antibody in the blood of the animals has been established. The booster immunization of the animals with influenza virus antigens produces a rise in the levels of both idiotypic and anti-idiotypic antibodies.

[Cellular and humoral cytotoxicity indices in children with glomerulonephritis].

Altogether 35 children suffering from different forms of glomerulonephritis were examined. It has been shown that in the pathogenesis of glomerulonephritis in children, an appreciable role is played not only by the action of pathogenic immune complexes but also by the mechanism of antibody-dependent cytotoxicity due to K-cells and lymphocytotoxicity, influencing the regulatory subpopulations of immunocompetent cells and acting directly on the structures of renal tissue. The nephrotic syndrome is characterized by the enhancement of serum lymphocytotoxicity whereas the nephritic syndrome by a rise in the blood of circulating immune complexes.

[Humoral and cellular factors of immunity in mice with hepatoma 22A].

Levels of hepatic autoantigens, anti-hepatic antibodies and immune complexes in sera of C3HA mice bearing syngeneic weakly-immunogenic hepatoma 22a were measured. The level of autoantigens increased during tumor growth, while autoantibodies were not identified at all stages. Circulating immune complexes were shown to bind heterologous complement at early stages of hepatoma growth, but later they did not.

[Circulating immune complexes and the complement level in children with acute pneumonia].

It has been shown that study of immunopathological component in acute pneumonias is of value. Such an approach has demonstrated that in the course of the disease there form immune complexes (IC), which absorb complement and are of importance for the disease pathogenesis, and tissue immune complexes which do not absorb complement. Formation of anticomplement IC in acute pneumonias is in a good agreement with a reduction in blood serum complement level with a concurrent change in these indicators in the lungs.

[Dynamics of the formation of anti-idiotypic antibodies in the course of the immune response].

The work demonstrates that after the injection of a heterogenous antigen into rabbits the appearance of antibodies is followed by the "spontaneous" formation of anti-idiotypic antibodies. These anti-antibodies, detected by means of several serological reactions, are specific and have an idiotypic character. Circulating antibody--anti-idiotypic antibody complexes have been detected in the blood of the animals.

[Antigen detection in substrates containing immune antigen-antibody complexes].

Treatment of immune complexes consisting of different antigens and corresponding IgG with low doses of hydrochloric cystein led to the antibody inactivation, to the complex splitting, and to the release of the antigen. Antibodies being a part of the complex retained their capacity to react with the antiglobulin serum. The optimal doses of cystein leading to the complex splitting and to the IgG inactivation in the immune complex composition failed to act on unbound IgG.