Disseminated immune deposits in lupus erythematosus

Immunohistologic studies were performed on autopsy tissues of 2 patients with systemic lupus erythematosus. All tissues examined--the kidney, lung, spleen, liver, intestine, peritoneum, and choroid plexus--contained immune deposits. Antinuclear antibody concentration in immunoglobulin G eluted from lung and spleen tissue was higher than in serum immunoglobulin G. These findings support the assumption that in systemic lupus erythematosus the renal as well as the extrarenal lesions can be attributed to vascular deposition of immune complexes.