Autoantibodies in three populations of Burkitt's lymphoma patients.

Autoantibodies against actin, intermediate filaments, single stranded DNA and histones were found in the sera of Burkitt's lymphoma (BL) patients and normal controls from tropical Africa, where there is a high incidence of BL. Both groups had significantly higher levels of these autoantibodies than Caucasian normal controls or patients with other malignant diseases, as well as Epstein-Barr (EB) virus positive and EB virus negative BL patients from regions of North Africa and France where the incidence is lower than in tropical Africa. No linear correlation could be seen between autoantibody levels and anti-EB virus/VCA or EBNA titres in patients and controls from tropical Africa. The results suggest that a factor independent of EB virus causes an immunological imbalance and autoantibody production in the population from tropical Africa. This factor may be one of several which results in a high incidence of BL in tropical Africa.