Abstract
Isolated rat muscle and human erythrocyte membranes as antigens have been disaggregated with sodium dodecyl sulfates (SDS).
A positive anti-membrane factor detected with l'électrosynérèse (Bussard) was demonstrated in 12.8% of the sera from myasthenia gravis patients and 100% of the systemic lupus erythematosus (SLE) patients. Various other dis-eases, such as collagen diseases, malignant tumours and chronic infections, had less than 50% positive precipitin reactions, and 200 healthy individuals were all negative. The membrane solution, after reducing the SDS to a concentration of less than 2±10-3 M, always gave a positive precipitin reaction against the sera of SLE patients. These finding suggest a new clinical entity of “Membrane Dis-ease.”
