The Production of Antibody by Patients with Chronic Hepatic Disease

Summary The amounts of antitoxin produced by 27 Schick-negative patients with chronic hepatic disease and 36 Schick-negative patients with other acute and chronic diseases following the intramuscular injection of 50 Lf purified diphtheria toxoid were measured by titration in the skin of rabbits. When the maximum measured amounts of antitoxin were compared, the patients with chronic hepatic disease were found to have made, on the average, three times as much antibody as the controls. There was no apparent relationship between the amounts of antitoxin produced and the age, clinical condition, degree of malnutrition, amounts and partition of serum proteins, and resistance to intercurrent infections. The synthesis of antibody appeared to be a highly preferential function resulting in certain cases in a replacement of a large percentage of the globulin previously present. On occasion, it appeared to be operative at the expense of the production of serum albumin.