Antinuclear reactivity of sera in patients with leukemia and other neoplastic diseases

Complement-fixing antibodies giving a speckled pattern of reactivity with fixed nuclei were detected in 73% of 137 AML patient sera tested, compared to 40% of 37 ALL, 26% of 35 CML, 14% of 44CLL, 13% of 46 African BL, 28% of 50 American BL, 11% of 21 polycythemia vera, 28% of 25 myeloma, 18% of 54 carcinoma, 7% of 27 Hodgkin's disease, 10% of 10 mononucleosis, 9% of 42 normal pregnant, and 1.3% of 77 healthy control sera. AML blasts, PHA-transformed lymphocytes, established EBV genome-free myeloma or lymphoma-derived cell lines and cultured embryonic lung fibroblasts gave positive reactions whereas normal lymphocytes, CML, and CLL cells were negative. No similar difference was detected with lupus erythematosus sera that reacted indiscriminately with all target cells. Leukemia and lymphoma patients thus appeart to form antibodies against nuclear antigen(s) expressed in proliferating cells.