The cytotoxic effect of serum from patients with Addison's disease and autoimmune ovarian failure on human granulosa cells in culture.

Human granulosa cells growing in culture were used to study the effects of sera from twenty-three patients with idiopathic Addison's disease. There were two women with primary amenorrhoea, thirteen with premature ovarian failure following a normal menarche, and one man with testicular atrophy in this group. The sera from all twenty-three patients contained antibodies which reacted with fresh sections of human corpus luteum using an in vitro immunoflorescence test. Serum fron nine of the twenty-three patients contained antibodies which were cytotoxic to human granulosa cells in tissue culture; the cytotoxic effect was complement dependent, and related to the immunofluorescent staining properties of the serum and dilution of antibody present. No cytotoxic effect was observed when granulosa cells were cultured in serum from the remaining fourteen Addisonian patients, or from normally menstruating women, post-menopausal women or in serum containing organ-specific antibodies to other endocrine tissues. The cytotoxic effect was paralleled by a fall in progesterone production by the granulosa cells. The production of progesterone by cells cultured in any of the non-cytotoxic sera was significantly greater than that produced by cells in the presence of cytotoxic antibody.