Inhibition of autoimmune hepatitis with hot labelled liver specific antigen.

In accordance with the clonal selection theory the authors intended to prevent the development of autoimmune hepatitis in rabbits with the aid of radiolabelled liver specific membrane (LSP) antigen administered prior to the antigen immunization. The autoimmune hepatitis was produced in rabbits by allogen LSP antigen. The inflammatory reaction was characterized by the serum glutamic oxaloacetic transaminase activity in the sera, by the parameters of immune reaction as well as by lysosomal membrane alterations in the liver and by morphological findings. The process was inhibited by pre-treatment with hot labelled LSP antigen. Neither the radioactively labelled growth hormone pre-treatment, nor the application of hot labelled antigen at the last week of the experiment were able to prevent the humoral and lysosomal, as well as the morphological data characteristic for autoimmune hepatitis. The results obtained may be understood considering the mechanism of clonal selection.