Studies on an adrenal antigen common to man and different animals

Precipitating adrenal antibodies, originally described by Andrada et al., are often associated with patients suffering from the moniliasis-polyendocrinopathy syndrome. The syndrome may include contemporarily several organ-specific autoimmune diseases such as hypoparathyroidism. Addison's disease, thyroiditis, pernicious anaemia, gastritis and ovarian failure and often combined with moniliasis and alopecia. These antibodies seem to differ from those demonstrable by immunofluorescence (IFL) and complement fixation. This conclusion was made as the titres of immunofluorescence antibodies did not correlate with the presence or absence of precipitating antibodies (Krohn et al., Clin Immunol Immunopathol 3:59-68, 1974; Heinonen et al., Ann Clin Res 8:262-265 1976). In this study we describe the subcellular localization and distribution of the precipitable adrenal antigens within some animal species. We found two precipitable adrenal antigens; one of them, designated P-antigen (particulate), was found in precipitable form only in the mitochondrial fractions, and the other, designated S-antigen, could be found in all subcellular fractions of some animal species. Bovine and equine S-antigen could be fractionated on a Sephadex G-200 column, revealing also the soluble nature of the S-antigen. The human S-antigen seemed to differ from the animal S-antigen as in addition to one common antigenic determinant (Sc), the human S contained a second determinant (Sh) not present in the animals. There was no difference in the antigenic character of the P-antigen within different species, although this conclusion is mainly based on the absorption studies.