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. 2004 Mar 13;55(2):249–254. doi: 10.1016/0002-9343(73)90176-9

Clinical and immunologic studies in identical twins discordant for systemic lupus erythematosus☆

Carolyn M Brunner 1,∗,1, David A Horwitz 1,1, Mary K Shann 1,∗, Benjamin A Sturgill 1,1, John S Davis IV 1,1
PMCID: PMC7119382  PMID: 4579077

Abstract

Middle-aged female identical twins, one of whom had systemic lupus erythematosus (SLE), were evaluated for immunologic reactivity to previous antigenic challenges, including primary immunization with a foreign antigen, keyhole limpet hemocyanin (KLH). These two women had lived together for all of their 58 years and neither was receiving anti-inflammatory or immunosuppressive drugs at the time of these studies. Both twins demonstrated comparable 7S and 198 humoral antibody response to KLH, as well as similar viral antibody titers. However, the twin with SLE was anergic to common antigens, streptokinase-streptodornase, Trichophyton and Candida; furthermore delayed hypersensitivity to KLH did not develop after immunization. This observed discrepancy between humoral and cellular immunity in genetically similar subjects may be significant in the pathogenesis of SLE.

Footnotes

☆

This study was supported by Grant RR-304 from the General Clinical Research Centers Program of the Division of Research Resources, National Institutes of Health, and by U.S. Public Health Service Grants RR05431-10 and RO1 AM11766, NSF Institutional Grant GU 3784, and a grant from the John A. Hartford Foundation, Inc. It was presented in part at the annual meeting of the American Rheumatism Association, New York, New York, June 14, 1971.

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