[Nature of immunological changes in ischemic heart disease]

Humoral and cellular immunological paramaters were studied in 3 groups of patients with ischemic heart disease. A distinct correlation was revealed between these parameters and clinical symptoms of the disease. It was shown that an immunological reconstruction took place already in the ischemic stage of coronarosclerosis. This reconstruction is expressed by the growth of hemagglutinating and precipitating antibody titers, as well as by the emergence of sensitized lymphocytes and excretion of the lymphocyte migration inhibiting factor. The use of various homogenates (a normal or atherosclerotic aorta, an infarctial myocardium) or the nonspecific mitogen PHA showed the presence of a specific antigenoactive complex in the blood of patients with ischemic heart disease. The complex was capable of penetrating and affecting the vascular wall as well as of producing antitissular (antivascular) antibodies which, together with the other factors, can help lipoprotein penetration through the arterial wall to form atheromatous plaques.