Smooth-muscle antibodies and other tissue antibodies in cytomegalovirus infection

Abstract

Smooth-muscle antibodies (SMA) were present in 16% of sixty-three patients with cytomegalovirus (CMV) antibodies in serum and absent in forty CMV antibody-negative blood donors (P = 0-005). The SMA were of the IgG and IgM class, while no IgA antibodies were found. In patients with CMV infection, SMA, mainly of the IgM class, were present in the early stages of the disease, and the titre decreased faster than the complement-fixing CMV antibody titre. Anti-nuclear antibodies (ANA) were also found more often in CMV antibody-positive sera than in CMV antibody-negative sera, and ANA were usually present in sera which also contained SMA. Parietal cell antibodies, mitochondrial antibodies and other cytoplasmic antibodies did not occur more frequently in CMV antibody-positive than in CMV antibody-negative sera.