Anti-idiotype antibodies against HLA specificities anti-HLA-A1, -A2, -A9, -A10, -B7, -B8, -B12 were detected in sera of 13 patients after transplantation of bone marrow and in five patients who had no transplantation but many blood transfusions. They had a multispecific character, inhibited concurrently 4-5 of the mentioned HLA antibodies. HLA antibodies were not present in sera of these patients and did not develop even after treatment with dithiothreitol. It seems therefore that anti-idiotypic antibodies have also a IgG structure. The bond of anti-idiotype antibodies with HLA specificities was firm and maximal: they were not released after 24 hours incubation at room temperature and did not form bonds with other HLA antibodies with the same specificity. The authors discuss the importance of anti-idiotype antibodies against HLA specificities for the outcome of bone marrow transplantation and therapeutically successful thrombocyte transfusion.

Keywords: Antibodies, Anti-Idiotypic /analysis/; Antibody Affinity; Antibody Specificity; Bone Marrow Transplantation /immunology/; HLA Antigens /immunology/; Humans