Experimental autoimmune gastritis in the Rhesus monkey.

Three rhesus monkeys were injected with pooled monkey gastric mucosa suspension plus complete Freund adjuvant. All three animals developed organ-specific autoantibodies and delayed skin tests to gastric antigen. The circulating antibodies were demonstrated by tanned cell haemagglutination using a well-centrifuged, heated gastric extract, and by complement fixation tests employing a lightly centrifuged gastric suspension. In immunofluorescent tests, antibodies localized primarily in the parietal cell cytoplasm of the gastric mucosa. All three monkeys showed histological evidence of chronic multifocal gastritis consisting of monocytic infiltration of the mucosal layer with atrophy of the neighbouring glands. The thyroids and other organs of these monkeys were normal. Normal monkeys, or control monkeys injected with monkey thyroid, adrenal or testis extract did not show these gastric changes.