[Immunologic differentiation of brain antigens in multiple sclerosis]

In 30 patients with disseminated sclerosis (more than 500 sera) the authors studied autoantibodies in Steffen's reaction to different homologous antigens of normal and "pathological" brain and to some internal organs. A normal brain tissue appeared to be immunologically more differentiated than the tissues of patients who had died of disseminated sclerosis. The antigen properties of the white matter of frontal lobes were more expressed than the gray matter, subcortical nodes, tissues of the cerebellum and spinal cord. Gliose-changed nervous tissues are immunologically not active. There was a certain parallelism between the supposed focal substrate of neurological symptoms and the data of autoimmune reactions which may have a topico-diagnostic significance. The authors discuss the antibrain antibodies found in disseminated sclerosis from the concept of their preventive function.