Glomerular immune complex formation and induction of lymphoma in athymic nude mice by tissue filtrates of Crohn's disease patients.

Lymph nodes and intestinal filtrates from Crohn's disease patients produced lymphoma in five and plasma cell hyperplasia in two of 63 athymic (nu/nu) mice. None of 27 mice injected with intestinal filtrates from ulcerative colitis patients but one of 13 mice injected with normal-appearing colon developed lymphoma. With an indirect immunofluorescence technique, sera from all nine patients with symptomatic Crohn's disease and one of 15 patients with asymptomatic Crohn's disease demonstrated cytoplasmic immunofluorescence in a lymphoma produced by Crohn's disease filtrates, but not in a control filtrate-induced lymphoma. None of 46 sera from ulcerative colitis patients or control subjects demonstrated immunofluorescence. In addition, immunofluorescent staining with symptomatic Crohn's disease sera recognized an antigen(s) within glomeruli that were also stained with anti-mouse IgG and IgM. Kidneys from the control mice did not show any staining. These studies suggest that an agent present in lymph nodes and intestine of patients with Crohn's disease can induce lymphoma and glomerular immune complexes in nu/nu mice.