Autoantibody formation in burn patients after inhibition of suppressor T cell activity with polymyxin B

After thermal injury, treatment with polymyxin B blocks suppressor T cell activity by uncoupling endotoxin-mediated T cell activation, but the effect on autoantibody formation is unknown. We examined the presence of antinuclear antibodies to native DNA; to soluble antigens Ro/SSA, La/SSB, Sm, nRNP; and to antiepithelial antibodies in 12 burn patients before and after treatment with polymyxin B and in 24 samples from control burn patients. Low titer antinuclear antibody activity was detected in 25% of pretreatment and 78% of posttreatment samples (p less than 0.01) and in 16.7% of control patients. One polymyxin B-treated patient had a significant antinuclear antibody titer both before and after treatment. Antiepithelial antibodies were detected in 16.7% of early polymyxin B-treated samples and 11.1% of late samples (p less than 0.05) but were also present in 20.8% of controls. Antibodies to native DNA, Ro/SSA, La/SSB, Sm, and nRNP were not detected in any sera.