[Immune disorders in osteoarthrosis in miners]

An immunologic evaluation was done in healthy miners and those working in coal mines suffering from deforming osteoarthrosis. Blood levels of beta 2-microglobulin and circulating immune complexes, titres of antibodies to glycosaminoglycans and antigens from cartilaginous tissue and synovial membrane were all found to be elevated. Shifts in the immunity system were clearly related to the spread of the pathological process as well as the rate of the disease progression and presence of reactive synovitis but not with occupation of the patients. Clinico-immunologic manifestations of osteoarthrosis were unfavourably influenced by industrial mining-geological factors.